Leo Neugebauer is world champion in decathlon – sprinters get bronze

At the World Athletics Championships two years ago, the Germans remained completely without a medal. Thanks to decathlon Leo Neugebauer, Germany now has a world champion again. In addition, the 4×100 meter relay of the women secured bronze at the end of the competitions in Tokyo. Before that, there had been three silver medals for the German Association.

The 25-year-old Leo Neugebauer won the world championship title in the decathlon with 8804 points. On the end of the end, the Olympic second had the title fights in the Japanese metropolis after an exciting 1500-meter run of just 20 points on Ayden Owens-Delerme from Puerto Rico. The American Kyle Garland won bronze. The Mainz Niklas Kaul, who won gold at the 2019 World Cup, worked in fourth place in his exciting chase, especially thanks to a strong javelin throw.

At the World Championships two years ago in Budapest, Neugebauer had fallen fifth as a half-time leader. He was also on a gold course at the Olympic Games in Paris and won silver at the end. This time he only took the lead in the javelin throw. In the final 1500-meter run, he then fought his way through to the title.

It is the first big title for Neugebauer. The multi-fighter living in the United States and started for VfB Stuttgart had improved Jürgen Hingsen’s German ancient record to 8961 points last year.

In the nation stadium, Neugebauer mastered a crazy decathlon best. He also benefited from the Norwegian top favorite Sander Skotheim after a disqualification in the hurdle run. Tokyo Olympic champion Damian Warner did not even start because of Achilles tendon problems, medal candidate Simon Hofammer from Switzerland ended the competition after a zero number in the high jump. The German Till Steinforth gave up with pain. More than a third of the registered decathlon did not end the competition.

The German women’s relay over the 4×100 meters won bronze at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. The quartet with Sina Mayer, Rebekka Haase, Sophia Junk and Gina Lückenkemper celebrated third place in 41.87 seconds and thus repeated the bronze coup from Olympia in Paris a year ago.

The season from the USA secured the World Cup title with sprint star Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (41.75 seconds) from Jamaica (41.79 seconds). The German relay secured the first medal in this discipline since Eugene in 2022, when it also finished third. A year later in Budapest, the team around the former European European champion Lückenkemper landed in sixth place.

In Tokyo, the German season had already convinced in the preliminary and in 41.86 seconds as third underlined its ambitions on precious metal. “Everything has to fit for the medal,” said Lückenkemper.

Like Haase and Junk, the final runner was already there a good year ago when winning the bronze medal in Paris. At that time, Germany had to give up Olympic champion USA and Great Britain.