Track and Field Events - Erm clinches European Championship decathlon title as Kaul ends in fourth place
Niklas Kaul, a champion title defender, ranked fourth at the European Athletics Championships in Rome. After his comeback to win gold at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, Kaul, a Mainz native, couldn't quite catch up to the medal positions on the second day.
Two months prior to the Paris Olympics, the previous world champion Kaul scored 8547 points in the first complete decathlon of the year. The 26-year-old athlete astonished one more time in the javelin throw - the second-to-last discipline - with a throw of 75.45 meters, once again being the best athlete in this category as he had been before in the discus throw.
The winner was Estonian Johannes Erm, with a total of 8764 points, followed by Sander Skotheim from Norway with 8635 points and Makenson Gletty from France with 8606 points. Behind Kaul, Manuel Eitel took the second-best position for Germans, finishing in seventh place (8212 points), Tim Nowak was ranked ninth (8150), and Felix Wolter came in 13th position (8051).
Leo Neugebauer, the top German and an Olympic gold contender, stands out. He set a new German record of 8961 points at the college championships right before the EM.
