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Leo Neugebauer: He came fifth at the World Championships in Budapest in 2023 and is now aiming for new records

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Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images

Decathlete Leo Neugebauer presented himself in dazzling form a good four months before the Olympic Games in Paris. The 23-year-old won the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in his adopted hometown of Austin with a clear lead and 8,708 points. He clearly won ahead of Lee Walburn with 7,694 points, but missed out on improving the German record from June of last year at the same place.

At that time, Neugebauer had broken Jürgen Hingsen's ancient record from 1986 with 8,836 points. This time, the fifth-placed World Cup winner from Budapest was 29 points above his final score from the previous year at halftime in his first decathlon of the year. Despite a personal best in the javelin throw (58.99 m), Neugebauer fell behind his top performances from 2023.

»Get a little more out of every discipline«

At the start on Wednesday, Neugebauer had already set a personal best with the ball (17.26 m). Neugebauer's early form, who had already broken the German record in the indoor heptathlon in mid-March, is remarkable: last year he started the outdoor season with 8,478 points at the Texas Relays and was therefore significantly worse.

At the World Championships in Budapest last year, he finished fifth as the half-time leader. This did not happen to him during the competition on the German night of Good Friday. Neugebauer has learned from the World Cup appearance and is one of the biggest German athletics hopes in the decathlon at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Neugebauer said at the beginning of the year that “a medal is due” in 2024: “That’s what I’m trying to work towards.” He also thinks the magic mark of 9,000 points is “feasible,” and to achieve that he “just has to get a little more out of it in every discipline .”

The athlete, who competes for VfB Stuttgart, recently made people sit up and take notice with an indoor record in the heptathlon. At the college championships in Boston, he improved Frank Busemann's national indoor record, which was more than two decades old, by 56 points to 6,347 points.

ara/dpa/sid