Leo Neugebauer almost came to a halt in the closing stages of the 1500m but the finish-line arrived just in time for the German who held off the trademark second day challenge from Niklas Kaul to win decathlon gold at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Thursday (13).
Neugebauer tallied a score of 8611 points to add the European title to his gold medal from the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
In summary
- Leo Neugebauer wins decathlon gold in Birmingham
- Neugebauer becomes the third German winner of the European decathlon title since 2018
- Sander Skotheim wins bronze on his return from injury
Leo Neugebauer had a comfortable lead of 154 points heading into the 1500m and the German had his teammate and overall second-placer Niklas Kaul, who made up ground on Neugebauer with a 73.54m javelin, still in his sights as he entered the home straight with the gold medal within his grasp.
But midway down the home straight, Neugebauer's legs suddenly turned to lead and the reigning world champion was reduced to a drunken stagger. The world champion covered the last 100 metres in a painful 22 seconds, only just reaching the finish-line before collapsing in an exhausted heap.
Neugebauer was haemorrhaging points in the last 70 metres but fortunately the 25-year-old had amassed enough of a cushion over the course of the first nine events to cling on for the title with 8611 points ahead of Kaul (8573 points) with Norway's Sander Skotheim taking bronze with 8433 points in his first decathlon of the year.
A lot of the damage was done in the discus as Neugebauer set his second championship best of the two days. After scoring big points in the shot put on the first day with 17.13m for 921 points, Neugebauer yielded 961 points with a championship best mark of 54.31m in the discus.
Neugebauer performed up to par in the pole vault with a 4.90m clearance before setting a season's best of 60.10m in the javelin to strengthen his grip on the title.
As expected, Kaul made excellent progress on the second day. He moved from sixth overnight to clinch the silver medal and provide the second part of a German one-two with a season's best of 8573 points. Kaul produced the best throw across the two pools of the javelin with 73.54m which gave the 28-year-old a reasonable chance of reeling in Neugebauer in the 1500m.
Kaul has a lifetime best of 4:10.04 but he couldn't quite produce this sort of form after two long and draining days which played out in intense heat. He stopped the clock at 4:20.70 to reduce the gap on Neugebauer to 38 points while Skotheim held on for bronze with 8433 points ahead of Jeff Tesselaar from the Netherlands who closed with a 4:16.13 clocking in the 1500m, taking his score to a lifetime best total of 8378 points.
2024 European champion Johannes Erm was fifth overnight but the Estonian, who has been beset by hamstring problems all season, was a notable withdrawal from the second day of proceedings.
What they said
Leo Neugebauer (GER)
"It was quite chaotic to be very honest, even though I had quite a lead going into the last 1500m. I knew everything could happen in that 1500m and I gave it my everything to stay in touch and finish first. The toughest event was probably the pole vault as you need to keep your nerves cool. That was so hard. Also the 1500m wasn't easy at all, I must admit. I am happy it was enough.
"In decathlon the most important thing is fighting until the end - it was fun, but it was never easy. That last 1500m was insane, it was so hard, so gruelling really. Especially in that last lap when it all hurts so much. That last 50 metres was horrific, the worst, as I felt like my legs were giving up on me."
Niklas Kaul (GER)
"I really tried to get the gold medal in the 1500m but my legs were so tired after the morning session. We spent three hours at the pole vault and that definitely took its toll on me. I won silver so I'm pretty happy with it. A decathlon medal is always so special."
"It was so much fun competing here. The decathlon spectators are always appreciating what we do and it's so much fun coming back to the stadium after each session. The fans in the stadium are very loud, they've helped pull us through the last couple days."