Leo Neugebauer delivers a very strong decathlon at the World Cup and could break the German medal ban.
Spectacular decathlon show by Leo Neugebauer: The shooting star is aiming for gold at the World Championships in Athletics and could finally break the ban on medals for the German team in Budapest. After a sensationally strong first half, the 23-year-old goes into the decision on Saturday as the leader with 4640 points. Canadian Pierce Lepage in second place is 30 points behind Neugebauer.
For European champion Niklas Kaul (Mainz), however, the medal dream has burst due to injury. The 25-year-old did not compete in the final 400 m of the first day on Friday evening due to a foot injury. The ex-world champion had injured his right foot in the high jump – just like at the Olympics in Tokyo. Manuel Eitel (4296/Ulm) is in twelfth place.
“As you can already hear, my voice isn’t that good anymore because I screamed so much,” said Neugebauer – with joy. Because Neugebauer underlined his absolute top form with two new best performances in the long jump (8.00 m) and shot put (17.04 m) and is aiming for a result of over 8900 points. It was only in June that the college student, who lives and trains in Austin, USA, improved Jürgen Hingsen’s old German record to 8836 points and traveled to Budapest as number one in the world.
“My heart rises, what a great show,” said Hingsen to “SID” about Neugebauer’s performance. The ex-world record holder is at home in front of the television: “Leo has shown a sensational competition so far. If he continues to march like this, he can’t be stopped.”
Neugebauer: “It pushes me a lot”
The German team is still waiting for the first medal after seven out of nine days of competition, Neugebauer wants to change that if possible on Saturday evening.
On the Danube, Neugebauer has regularly torn the fans from their seats – but not only in sport. “Leo The German”, as they call him in Austin/Texas, also impressed as an entertainer with his cool, relaxed manner and in between he took a lot of time for selfies with the fans.
“If I can retrieve what I do in training, then it will be a top decathlon,” said Neugebauer: “It pushes me a lot that my family and friends can finally watch, I have most of the competitions in Had America. They have fun and I have fun, that’s great.” And on Saturday the party should go on.
With defending champion and world record holder Kevin Mayer, a medal candidate had to end the decathlon due to an injury. The Frenchman dropped out after the long jump because of Achilles tendon problems.