DNiklas Kaul’s traditional catch-up race in the decathlon has once again led to a title. Under the deafening noise in the almost full Munich Olympic Stadium, he crowned himself the king of European athletes on Tuesday evening with 8545 points. “This title is worth a lot more than the world title three years ago,” said the 24-year-old in a first statement. The mood boiled over at the 1500 meter run. “My ears almost blew off,” even Kaul was amazed: “It’s just crazy.”
And it was once again a win thanks to his last two disciplines. The world champion from Doha let his javelin fly at a sensational 76.05 meters in the third attempt – first accompanied by an astonished murmur and then a happy cry from almost 50,000 throats in the Olympic Stadium, to which “oh-how-is-that-beautiful ‘ chants joined.
Kaul spread his arms happily and then did a spontaneous quarter lap of honor when he became aware of the distance: championship record. With this blow, the 24-year-old from Mainz had suddenly catapulted himself to third place in the overall ranking thanks to his brilliant ninth discipline – for the first time on the two days of the European Championships he took a medal.
And in the final 1500-meter run, which, like the javelin, is one of Kaul’s absolute special disciplines, he worked as always as a locomotive at the head of the field, won from the front in an unbelievable time of 4:10.06 minutes and actually managed to do it Jump to first place.
The young Swiss Simon Ehammer, who for a long time looked like the sure European champion, dragged himself last in this middle-distance run after 4:48.72 minutes. With a Swiss record of 8468 points, he still managed to finish second and win the silver medal. The nimble 22-year-old appears as an alternative to a decathlete compared to Kaul. His strengths are at the beginning of the first day: he started with 10.56 seconds over 100 meters as the best of the tableau, then extended his lead with 8.31 meters in the long jump and also won over 400 meters (47.50 seconds) and 110 meter hurdles (13.75) the discipline scores. In view of his outstanding speed values, the rather slender Swiss could apparently afford his weaknesses with shot (14.24 meters), discus (34.92) and javelin (53.56).
But he was unable to counter the big Kaul final over three and a quarter laps of the stadium. The Estonian Janek Öiglane (8346) won bronze. The former world championship third Kai Kazmirek (8151) was eighth.
Alone on the hurdle track: Arthur Abele had to sit in detention
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Image: dpa
Incidentally, the title defender, who completed the last competition of his athletics life in Munich, was at the center of a sublime and at the same time funny moment of the decathlon. Arthur Abele, ennobled to “King Arthur” after his coup in Berlin in 2018, was allowed to get involved again in Munich thanks to a wildcard – and was already in tears before the sixth discipline. Because of an alleged false start, he was disqualified before the 110-meter hurdles. But since the German Athletics Association (DLV) successfully lodged a protest, the 36-year-old was allowed to repeat the race – alone, two hours after everyone else.
Enthusiastically cheered on by more than 20,000 spectators during the morning session, Abele fought his way over the hurdles set up especially for him, stumbled to the finish after a mediocre 14.50 seconds, but stretched his arms in the air like a winner and was frenetically celebrated. “My nerves are totally broken,” the authentic Swabian shouted into the stadium microphone. It was already clear in advance that after many injury breaks he would have nothing to do with the medal award. But at least he wanted to get through the decathlon again. And the man from Ulm made it: Abele finished 15th and last with 7662 points.
But everyone who gets through is a winner anyway. All decathletes traditionally run the lap of honor together. This time it was particularly emotional, because in addition to the new champion Niklas Kaul, the dethroned king was particularly celebrated. All athletes lined up for Abele: Standing ovations for the last and the first in a competition: That only happens in the decathlon.
