Germany’s Leo Neugebauer improved on silver from last year’s Olympic Games to win decathlon gold at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday (21), just edging out Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delerme in a thrilling finale.
It was Germany's first gold medal of the championships, clinched in the final session.
Sitting in third place overnight, Neugebauer produced a solid 14.80 in the 110m hurdles, the opening event of day two. But more tellingly, pre-event favourite and world leader Sander Skotheim, who was poised in second place overnight, was disqualified.
The Norwegian struck a hurdle, pushed over the next hurdle which earned him a disqualification and put him out of contention.
Meanwhile, overnight leader Kyle Garland of USA’s tightened his grip on gold with 14.30 putting him more than 300 points clear of the German.
Field events key
But in the following three field events, Neugebauer made his move. First, he landed a 56.51m discus throw to Garland’s 48.06m.
Then in the pole vault, he cleared 5.10m to Garland’s 4.80m. And the javelin was pivotal, Neugebauer launched a personal best of 64.35m against Garland’s 59.78m to seize the overall lead with 8702.
But in the 1500m, the final event, Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delerme was now the big danger. In worsening rain-hot conditions, Owens-Delerme, who was fourth at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, pushed the pace up front with France’s Antoine Ferranti, placing second with a season’s best 4:17.91.
In the pack, Neugebauer had to dig deep to stay within reach and he staggered over the line in a personal best 4:31.89 to total 8804, just 20 points clear of the plucky Puerto Rican, with Garland taking bronze with 8703.
"The most important thing is to just keep going"
"It still sounds unbelievable.," said the new champion "I don't know what to say. The oxygen is not back in my brain yet from the run. I feel fantastic. Day 1 was really tough for everybody, I think. Many people fell out, which is really tough in the decathlon.
"The important thing is just to keep going, especially on Day 2. I was just in a good mood today. I felt great, so I just kept going. This season was really tough. I surprised myself a little bit but I had a lot of fun in general."