World Champs Menâ€s Decathlon — Back To School Days

SEEING A COMPETITION for medal positions among Kyle Garland, Leo Neugebauer and Ayden Owens is definitely new on the world stage.

But collegiate fans remember that being the norm in 2022 and 2023 with the trio taking the top 3 places three times in multis at the NCAA Championships when they wore the uniforms of Georgia, Texas and Arkansas instead of USA, Germany and Puerto Rico.

Many had anticipated Garland would contend with Sander Skotheim as the latter led the yearly list at 8909 over Garlandâ€s 8869, and thatâ€s how things stood through the end of Day 1. Oh, everything changed early on Day 2.

Hereâ€s an event-by-event look at how things unfolded:

100: Damian Warner — gold medalist in an empty version of this stadium in â€21 at the Olympics and the deca 100 WR holder at 10.12 — was a late scratch, so Ayden-Owens was easily the fastest (his 10.31 near his PR 10.27) with Garland next at 10.51 (down from his PR 10.44 at USATF). All of the contenders were off their bests.

Long Jump: Simon Ehammer — 4th in the main long jump three days earlier — flew predictably far here but leapt just 26-1¾ (7.97), albeit twice in matching Skotheim. Garland was next. He averted disaster after two fouls with an outdoor PR 26-0 (7.92). Neugebauer — the only other 8-meter jumper besides Ehammer and Skotheim — went 25-0 (7.62).

Shot: Garland opened up with a PR 55-10¼ (17.02) to hit 2927 points for 3 events, just 5 points off the torrid pace in his PR score. Neugebauer was next — in the shot at 54-9½ (16.70) and overall with a 2765 score, 162 points behind Garland. Third overall after an outdoor PR 47-7 (14.50) was Skotheim with 2703. That trio projected over 8800 while everyone else was under 8700 compared to their PRs.

High Jump: Skotheim and Garland owned the two best PRs and were the two highest here at 7-¼ (2.14) and 6-11 (2.11) as the Americanâ€s lead grew to 206, now over the Norwegian with Neugebauer (who cleared 6-6¼/1.99) another 68 back. This would be the last event for defending champ Pierce LePage, who was more than 400 points off his PR 8909 pace from Budapest.

400: Owens-Delerme was fastest at 46.46 and American Harrison Williams was the only other sub-47 at 46.88. Skotheim ran 47.86 (down from the 47.47 in his PR) while Garland clocked 48.73 (an improvement on the 49.29 in his PR). Neugebauer was at 48.27, near the 48.03 in his PR.

The Day 1 totals had Garland at 4707, 164 ahead of Skotheim at 4543, but the duo projected within 11 points of each other at 8862 and 8851. Owens-Delerme (4487) and Neugebauer (4455) followed — both more than 100 points down on PR pace but still very much in medal contention. Little noticed on the leader board in 8th (4167, a whopping 539 points behind Garland) was the only one in the field on PR pace — Niklas Kaul, 3 points up on the 8691 total that garnered him the â€19 WC gold.

110H: Disaster struck once and almost twice. In the second race, Skotheim hit hurdle 5 and was off balance so much that he shoved over hurdle 6 — a clear DQ that made him withdraw. In the final section, Garland hit more hurdles (6) than he cleared cleanly (4), and while he got through, his 14.30 was 67 points down from the 13.78 in his PR. He was still in the lead, but he opened the proverbial door for others.

Owens-Delerme was fastest for the third track event in a row, running 13.66 to gain on his PR score (13.73) to take over the chase pack, 136 points behind Garland. Kaul ran 14.45 to improve his PR pace and move up to 7th while Neugebauer hurdled a subpar 14.80 to remain in 3rd.

Discus: A good event for the would-be medalists, especially Neugebauer at a meet record 184-2 (56.15) in taking over chase pack duties. Garlandâ€s 157-8 (48.06) was 60 points down from his 167-1 (50.93) PR at USATF as his lead actually improved to 145. Ayden-Owens was another 31 behind Neugebauer after his 151-4 (46.12) was a third-straight event improving on his PR score.

Pole Vault: The big change here was that the projected medalists looked like eventual medalists for the first time. All three were solid behind Williams†leading 17-¾ (5.20). Owens-Delerme and Neugebauer finished at 16-8 (5.10) (an =PR for Owens-Delerme) and Garland matched the 16-¾ (4.80) in his PR. While the scores tightened — Garlandâ€s lead now at 53 over Neugebauer with AOD another 31 back — Garland held a 100+ lead on projections.

Javelin: Neugebauer took the overall lead after the longest of his two PRs. Heâ€d gone 200-1 (61.00) and then 211-1 (64.34). It was the first great event in the meet, and his 8072 score after 9 events was 15 points up on Garland, who threw 196-1 (59.78). That would have been a PR save for his 214-11 (65.52) at USATF (he had a narrow toe foul estimated near that distance here). Owens-Delerme hit his No. 2 ever throw at 192-10 (58.79) and remained in 3rd, now 114 points out of the lead. Kaul was good — his 256-6 (78.18) just short of his PR and MR 259-4 (79.05) — but not enough after being down in the discus and vault.

1500: Based on event strength, the medal positions looked likely, but there was one adjustment. Neugebauer hung on to the gold, making a move with 2 laps to go to PR by over 6 seconds in 4:31.89. His 8804 total was 20 points better than the 8784 NR by Owens-Delerme, who moved to silver in the closest finish in meet history. Garland finished in 8704 for the bronze.

“It still sounds unbelievable,†Neugebauer said. “I donâ€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.â€

MENâ€S DECATHLON RESULTS

(September 20–21)

1. Leo Neugebauer (Ger) 8804 (10.80, 25-0/7.62, 54-9½/16.70, 6-6¼/1.99, 48.27 [4455-4]),

14.80, 184-2/56.15, 16-8¾/5.10, 211-1/64.34, 4:31.89 [4349]);

2. Ayden Owens-Delerme (PR) 8784 NR (10.31, 24-¼/7.32, 51-¼/15.55, 6-5/1.96, 46.46 [4487-3]),

13.65, 151-4/46.12, 16-8¾/5.10, 192-10/58.79, 4:17.91 [4297]);

3. Kyle Garland (US) 8703 (10.51, 26-0/7.92, 55-10¼/17.02, 6-11/2.11, 48.73 [4707-1]),

14.30, 157-8/48.06, 15-9/4.80, 196-1/59.78, 4:45.45 [3996]);

4. Niklas Kaul (Ger) 8538 (11.34, 23-8/7.21, 47-10/14.58, 6-8¾/2.05, 48.13 [4167-8]),

14.45, 155-2/47.29, 15-5/4.70, 256-6/78.19, 4:20.76 [4371]);

5. Johannes Erm (Est) 8431 (10.78, 25-½/7.63, 49-9¾/15.18, 6-5/1.96, 47.51 [4378-5]),

14.52, 148-4/45.21, 16-8¾/5.10, 184-9/56.32, 4:29.15 [4053]);

6. Heath Baldwin (US) 8337 (11.01, 23-10/7.26, 50-3½/15.33, 6-9¾/2.08, 48.44 [4310-6]),

14.16, 134-6/41.01, 15-9/4.80, 214-0/65.24, 4:33.42 [4027]);

7. Harrison Williams (US) 8269 (10.79, 22-7/6.88, 48-9½/14.87, 6-2¾/1.90, 46.88 [4153-9]),

14.56, 149-7/45.61, 17-¾/5.20, 181-11/55.44, 4:22.72 [4116]);

8. Kendrick Thompson (Bah) 8175 (10.67, 24-9/7.54, 41-2½/12.56, 6-7½/2.02, 47.93 [4255-7]),

14.15, 118-5/36.10, 15-1/4.60, 223-2/68.02, 4:32.26 [3920]);

9. Makenson Gletty (Fra) 8146; 10. Jente Hauttekeete (Bel) 8116; 11. Vilém Stráský (CzR) 8110; 12. Antoine Ferranti (Fra) 8003; 13. José Fernando Ferreira Santana (Bra) 7927; 14. Xiang Fei (Chn) 7347; 15. OndÅej Kopecký (CzR) 7184; 16. Karel Tilga (Est) 6073;

… DNFs –

Lindon Victor (Grn) 5930, Sander Aae Skotheim (Nor) 4543, Pierce LePage (Can) 3241, Sven Roosen (Neth) 2585, Till Steinforth (Ger) 2367, Janek Õiglane (Est) 2259.

Top 5s By Event

100: 1. Owens-Delerme 1020; 2. Garland 973; 3. Victor 952; 4. Ehammer 938; 5. Thompson 938;… 9. Neugebauer 906.

LJ: 1. Garland 2013; 2. Ehammer 1991; 3. Skotheim 1934; 4. Owens-Delerme 1911; 5. Thompson 1880;… 7. Neugebauer 1871.

SP: 1. Garland 2927; 2. Neugebauer 2765; 3. Ehammer 2736; 4. Owens-Delerme 2735; 5. Skotheim 2693.

HJ: 1. Garland 3833; 2. Skotheim 3627; 3. Neugebauer 3559; 4. Owens-Delerme 3502; 5. Erm 3445.

400: 1. Garland 4707; 2. Skotheim 4543; 3. Owens-Delerme 4487; 4. Neugebauer 4455; 5. Erm 4378.

110H: 1. Garland 5643; 2. Owens-Delerme 5507; 3. Neugebauer 5329; 4. Erm 5286; 5. Baldwin 5264

DT: 1. Garland 6473; 2. Neugebauer 6328; 3. Owens-Delerme 6297; 4. Erm 6057; 5. Baldwin 5949.

PV: 1. 1. Garland 7322; 2. Neugebauer 7269; 3. Owens-Delerme 7238; 4. Erm 6998; 5. Williams 6807.

JT: 1. Neugebauer 8072; 2. Garland 8057; 3. Owens-Delerme 7958; 4. Kaul 7732; 5. Erm 7681.

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