With a sensational run, Niklas Kaul doesn’t give the competition a chance. The 24-year-old is the new European champion in the decathlon. In the meantime, he has already ticked off gold, but fights his way back brilliantly. The European title is worth much more to him than the World Cup gold three years ago.
At the end, Niklas Kaul and Simon Ehammer sit together on the tartan track. Shortly after the finish line, they remain spellbound. Completely exhausted, but the last bit of energy has to be enough to look at the scoreboard. Until there is redemption. Because the last discipline in the decathlon is no longer accomplished by the athletes, but by the computers. Which of them is the European champion in the decathlon? It’s an arithmetic game that the German and the Swiss can only skip. Just like everyone else in the stadium.
Whoever finishes first over 1500 meters is not automatically the overall winner of the two-day ordeal. After minutes in which the computers are running at full speed and at the same time the time in the Munich Olympic Stadium is becoming as tough as chewing gum, one thing is clear: This time it’s the same. Niklas Kaul is the first to finish and Niklas Kaul is the European Champion. Ehammer remains the silver medal after an outstanding first day, the 22-year-old is the first to congratulate. “To deliver like that at home is very, very strong,” he says. “It was a lot of fun teasing him a little and teasing him until the end that he has to run fast. I’m overjoyed with silver and I begrudge him it from the bottom of my heart.” But the Swiss, who, unlike Kaul, has his strengths in the sprint and jump disciplines, has one goal: “I’m training to be at the front at some point.”
It’s not that far yet, in the final run Ehammer quickly sees nothing of Kaul, who is two years older than him. He brings an impressive solo run to the track, which is already over after 4:10.09 minutes. Kaul has never run so fast. So fast that nobody can follow him. It doesn’t even go according to plan: “There was a concept: It didn’t work,” he says. “The idea was that I wanted to run 69 seconds per lap, then I would have reached 1000 meters in 2:52 minutes and then the plan was to slowly pick up the pace, just like I always did in the previous runs. Unfortunately I was at 2:47 for 1000 meters and I thought the last 400 meters will be fun now”, he summarizes his thoughts during the decisive race. “But the spectators carried me through well.” And: “I also knew that this is the discipline for which I am best prepared.” But he still doesn’t remember much from the last lap, only “Run, run, 300 somehow always works.”
And how to do it. As a reward, he now stands there as a celebrated winner, for whom the 40,000 spectators in the stadium escalate completely. “My ears almost blew off at the 1500, it was just amazing.” At the same time, as he confesses after the competition, it is already clear to him by midday on the second day, after the discus throw and even more so after the pole vault: “The gold chance is definitely gone.” Ehammer seems to have rushed too far, the Swiss jumps an outstanding 8.31 meters, with which he would have won silver at the European Championships. Kaul himself starts the competition with a new personal best, runs the 100 meters faster than ever before, and ends the first day with a new personal best over 400 meters. But it’s the same as always: On day one, Kaul has nothing to do with the top positions. He’s the man of the second day, that’s where his parade disciplines come from.
But not everything goes perfectly on day two either, he falls well short of his potential in the discus throw. He throws just 41.80 meters, more than seven meters less than his personal best. It’s the low point of his competition, as he says himself. Despite a reasonable pole vault of 4.90 meters, the morning ends as quickly as possible, also for the psyche. “But then I got up after my nap and had in my head: Well, if the chance of gold is gone, then at least we’ll do a show for the spectators in the last two disciplines, because they definitely deserve what they have for one The two days made a good mood.”
And he delivers the show. The evening begins with the penultimate discipline, javelin throwing. It is the parade discipline for Kaul. No other decathlete can throw as far as he can – actually. He hasn’t been able to prove that since his 2019 World Cup title in Doha, when he achieved his personal best of 79.05 meters. After his coup, he had to have an operation on his elbow, which affected his throwing arm. In 2020, athletics, like the rest of the world, came to a standstill due to the pandemic, and at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 he had to give up due to a foot injury after the high jump. Three and a half weeks ago at the World Championships in Eugene, things went well, but not very well, Kaul finished sixth. With a javelin throw just below 70 meters.
That should be different in Munich – and his first attempt goes to 70.98 meters, the second he invalidates. He would catch up on the medal spots, but not decisively. Then he is in the run-up for the third attempt. The audience whips him loudly, immediately after the drop Kaul knows that he sails far. Really far, the “Ohhh” of the fans stretches out. 76.05 meters – and suddenly the dream of gold is back. “I think it was noticed when I was throwing the javelin that a load fell from my heart. Regardless of whether I then had a chance of gold again,” says the Mainzer. “But also for me, that I know I can still do it with a spear after all.”
But there is not much time to be happy about it, because the 1500 meters are already on the agenda. The calculation begins now at the latest, the comparison of the best performances. One thing is clear: it will be tight, but Kaul can actually make it. Arthur Abele, for whom his career ended with this run, also knows that: “I think I said get the fucking medal.”
Kaul listens to his teammate. He collects a total of 8545 points, putting himself ahead of Ehammer (8468) and the Estonian Janek Öiglane (8346). He wins gold. Once again. As in the youth, also in the adults. After the World Cup, this time at the European Championship. “It’s not comparable because the attention is completely different,” says the 24-year-old. “The first time was a huge surprise, now it’s like that after a time when things didn’t go so well, it confirmed to me that the way is the right one. And I’m incredibly relieved. It’s the emotional one for me more important titles.”
