So we come into the second day of the European Championships decathlon in Birmingham with the 2025 world champion Leo Neugebauer of Germany in the lead, but not quite dominant.
Jeff Tesselaar of the Netherlands was having the competition of his life, positioned in second place overnight.
The European Indoor Champion, Sander Skotheim of Norway, was experiencing a tentative decathlon after return from injury, solid, but yet without the standout performances and sharpness which have taken him to over 8900 points.
Instead, the momentum was with the 2019 world champion and 2022 European champion, Niklas Kaul, stalking the men in front of him, and getting closer with every discipline.
110m hurdles
Overnight, the defending European champion Johannes Erm of Estonia withdrew from competition, as did Zsombor Galpal from Hungary. Erm had been in fifth place, so his departure would affect the overall positions.
After a tense high jump for Czechia the previous evening, Vilem Strasky was able to get his decathlon back on track with a good run in the 110m hurdles. His time of 14.47s would have the effect of lifting him from ninth place to fifth place – the gap vacated by Erm – after six events.
Otherwise, the top standings stayed the same.
Neugebauer was the slowest of the leaders, in 14.94s. Kaul ran 14.73s, Tesselaar 14.65s, Skotheim 14.50s.
But the gap between the placings, and between the points, shrunk after the first event of the second day.
Although still in sixth place, Kaul was now only 244 points behind Neugebauer, compared to the 269 points of difference overnight.
The biggest gain was, of course, from Makenson Gletty of France, who dominated the discipline. Gletty hurdled to 14.18s, bringing the Swiss duo of Andrin Huber (14.29s) and Nino Portmann (14.45s) with him.
Gletty stayed in fourth place, but reduced the gap to Skotheim ahead of him, from 59 to 19 points
After six events
- 1. Neugebauer (GER) 5340
- 2. Tesselaar (NED) 5304
- 3. Skotheim (NOR) 5293
- 4. Gletty (FRA) 5274
- 5. Strasky (CZE) 5109
- 6. Kaul (GER) 5096
- 7. Portmann (SUI) 5087
- 8. Dester (ITA) 5077
- 9. Roosleht (EST) 5068
- 10. Huber (SUI) 5067
- 11. Pelkmans (NED) 5047
- 12. Tilga (EST) 5035
- 13. Graeber (GER) 5031
- 14. Ferranti (FRA) 4994
- 15. Lillemets (EST) 4978
- 16. Keita (BEL) 4976
- 17. de Greef (NED) 4816
- 18. Uhlin (SWE) 4776
- 19. Benkunskas (LTU) 4757
- 20. Nonnino (ITA) 4659
- 21. Krummenacher (SUI) 4528
- Erm (EST) DNF
- Galpal (HUN) DNF
- Kopecky (CZE) DNF
- Jarvinen (CZE) DNF
Discus
The seventh and eighth events of the decathlon were staggered, the first group of the pole vault beginning before the second group of the discus had finished.
This meant that the discus groups were organised according to pole vault capability, rather than discus capability.
That construction had Niklas Kaul and Jeff Tesselaar participating in the first discus group, and Leo Neugebauer, Makenson Gletty and Sander Skotheim in the second.
Kaul continued his strategy of getting as close as possible to his individual PBs, 48.78m with his first throw, and 48.88m with his final throw, both just a metre or so short of his lifetime best of 49.89m. Tesselaar threw 45.26m.
That shrunk the gap between Kaul, previously in sixth, and Tesselaar, previously in second, to only 133 points, from a gap of 208.
Karel Tilga, in 12th after the hurdles, improved his prospects with a strong throw of 49.14m.
As the first group began their warm-up for the pole vault, the second group began their preparation for the later stage of the discus discipline.
As anticipated, the championships decathlon best fell quickly, as Neugebauer threw his first disc to 54.31m. That surpassed the previous mark of Mikko Halvari for Finland, in Helsinki in 2010, which was 52.06m.
But championship decathlon bests don’t win titles. As impressive as 54.31m is, it was only 5m or so in front of Kaul.
Neugebauer would of course increase his lead after the event – to some 300 points – but as the second day of the decathlon reached its denouement, the shadow of Kaul behind Neugebauer would get shorter, and shorter, in the final two events.
A strong vault would be critical for Neugebauer, and a strong vault critical for Kaul. They would play that out at very different heights, but neither could risk a misstep.
After seven events
- Neugebauer 6301
- Tesselaar 6076
- Skotheim 6023
- Gletty 5971
- Kaul 5943
- Tilga 5887
- Roosleht 5839
- Strasky 5827
- Pelkmans 5803
- Huber 5801
- Portmann 5775
- Lillemets 5773
- Graeber 5766
- Dester 5737
- Ferranti 5643
- de Greef 5633
- Keita 5621
- Benkunskas 5556
- Uhlin 5491
- Nonnino 5297
- Krummenacher 5261
Pole vault
The slip-up which neither Neugebauer nor Kaul could afford happened. But the gaffe was not a result of any action of either of the twin world champions.
The competition began smoothly, Nino Portmann enjoying the full attention of the crowd as he made his way through his early heights to equal his lifetime best of 4.40m.
A hiccup for Pelkmans as he no heighted on his opening height of 4.50m, unfortunate for him, but not critical for the top end of the competition.
A raft of clearances then came at 4.60m, then at 4.70m, which was the best for Tesselaar, just one height below his lifetime best.
Then, the trouble started.
Kaul cleared 4.70m in the first group. Neugebauer cleared the same height in the second group, while Makenson Gletty, already clear over 4.60m, passed.
The bar moved onto 4.80m. Or so we thought.
Niklas cleared 4.80m first time in his group. Leo cleared 4.80m first time in his group, as did several others, while Makenson had a failure.
Then, an announcement that the decathletes in Group B – Neugebauer and Gletty’s group – would need to jump again at 4.80m, because the bar hadn’t been moved up from 4.70m.
The error was not noticed within the first few moments of its impact. Rather, seven athletes had taken attempts, some clear and ready to move on, some not yet clear and resetting themselves for further attempts.
The group started again at the real height of 4.80m. Neugebauer was knocked off his rhythm, failing three times in a row at 4.80m. Kaul was clear in the other group, and moving onto 4.90m, undistracted by wayward measurements.
The entire axis of the decathlon pivoted around the tortoise and hare dynamic of Kaul and Neugebauer.
Neugebauer had surged ahead with his strong day one and discus, and the pole vault should have been one of the events which provided insurance against Kaul’s deadly javelin and 1500m.
Kaul was reeling his teammate in, stealthily climbing, from 20th place to fourth with two to go.
But now the dynamic was interrupted. The first mismeasurement was further compounded by a dispute on the depth of the uprights for Neugebauer and Gletty.
For reasons still being untangled – the mistake on height, or the confusion on uprights – both Neugebauer and Gletty were given a further attempt at 4.80m.
Neugebauer cleared it. Gletty did not, and had passed at 4.70m, leaving him with only 4.60m and a big dent in his medal ambitions.
Fired up, Neugebauer then cleared 4.90m, as did Kaul in the first group. Both champions ended there.
Did the mistake by officials directly cause the reigning world champion to fail his later pole vault clearances, and hand the advantage to Kaul?
Or did they give Neugebauer an extra attempt at a height he might not have otherwise cleared in three attempts?
Did the disruption cost Gletty his chance at a medal?
Away from the drama Skotheim, who had passed at both fake and real 4.80m, cleared 5.00m, not yet quite able to put the heights we would expect between himself and the rest of the field.
And Amadeus Graeber, who had cleared both fake and real 4.80m, had the best vault of all, leaving the rest of the field behind with 5.10m.
After pole vault, the standings appear to show that Neugebauer has increased his lead. But that is merely a function of the movements between Skotheim and Tesselaar.
Niklas Kaul is exactly the same number of points behind Leo Neugebauer as he was after the discus.
Now, the stage belongs to Kaul – and he’s been here before.
After eight events:
- Neugebauer (GER) 7181
- Skotheim (NOR) 6933
- Tesselaar (NED) 6895
- Kaul (GER) 6823
- Tilga (EST) 6767
- Gletty (FRA) 6761
- Graeber (GER) 6707
- Roosleht (EST) 6688
- Lillemets (EST) 6622
- Huber (SUI) 6591
- Strasky (CZE) 6587
- Ferranti (FRA) 6553
- Keita (BEL) 6531
- Portmann (SUI) 6506
- Dester (ITA) 6497
- De Greef (NED) 6482
- Uhlin (SWE) 6401
- Edgaras (LTU) 6316
- Nonnino (ITA) 6177
- Krummenacher (SUI) 6171
- Pelkmans (NED) 5893
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WRITTEN BY: Gabby Pieraccini
