Leo Neugebauer is one of the great Olympic hopes in German athletics. He is skipping the European Championships and instead competing in the US College Championships. There he is doing great.
Two months before the Olympic Games in Paris, Leo Neugebauer achieved a dominant victory in the decathlon and improved his own German record. He just missed the 9000-point mark: The 23-year-old won the US College Championships in Eugene, Oregon, with 8961 points.
“It’s unbelievable. I can’t describe how it feels. I can’t put my thoughts into words,” said Neugebauer after his last competition for the University of Texas. He would have liked to have cracked the 9000-point mark, but he didn’t have enough reserves in the final 1500-meter race. “I tried, I overtook people. But there are other disciplines where I can get the points,” said the athlete from VfB Stuttgart.
Neugebauer had already made a big splash in the USA a year ago when he improved the ancient mark of decathlon legend Jürgen Hingsen to 8836 points. This year, Neugebauer then improved the 22-year-old national indoor record of Frank Busemann in the heptathlon.
“Feeling great”
“I’ve really put in a lot of work over the last two years,” Neugebauer said of his time in Austin, adding with a view to the Olympic Games: “I feel great.”
The first day went well for him, and on the second day Neugebauer continued to deliver strong results. He needed 14.36 seconds for the 110 meter hurdles, and he threw the discus 57.70 meters in his first attempt. In the pole vault, Neugebauer managed 5.21 meters, just like last year. After throwing 56.64 meters in the javelin, he finished the decathlon with a time of 4:44.61 minutes over 1500 meters.
Neugebauer studies and trains in Austin at the University of Texas. He skipped the European Championships in Rome for the US College Championships. The success in Eugene should also pay off at the Olympics. At the World Championships a year ago, Neugebauer was the leader but fell back to fifth place after the first day.
Source: Stern
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