One thing will not happen to Niklas Kaul at the Olympic Games in Tokyo: that he does not look again at the current schedule for his appearance.

For this reason, the decathlon world champion from Mainz was too late for his last competition test on Sunday before leaving for Japan on Friday.

The 23-year-old missed the early hurdles sprint on the Frankfurt facility;

the preparation for the subsequent discus throw was too short to step into the ring warmed up enough.

After a disappointing 38.96 meters, the guest star of the Eintracht Summer Cup broke off the performance he had just begun and waived the pending pole vault.

The athlete struggled with what has been annoying him for the entire season: the good performance and the functioning technique from training in competition.

He gained similar experience before major previous events, which did not prevent the talent from winning four titles at junior world and European championships before his World Cup coronation among the active players in 2019.

Perhaps more than others, he needs the adrenaline that is poured out in competition.

In view of the heights to which he has to soar in Asia to stand up to the competition, the all-rounder doubts this time that that will be enough.

The Canadian Damian Warner had presented 8995 points in Götzis at the end of May, the Rheinhesse followed in fifth place with 8263 points.

Kaul does not deny that his head is in the way, who has always approached his challenges in a relaxed and cool manner in the past.

The conditions on site

“It's a different kind of tension that you have to cope with.” When he made the leap to the top of the world straight away two years ago as the youngest person to date, the debutant was able to approach the task without knowing it.

After his surprising World Cup victory, all eyes are now on him.

He cannot completely ignore the pressure of expectation.

His best performance from Qatar is 8691 points. The German is therefore not a favorite on August 4th and 5th. However, a lot can happen in a two-day competition with ten disciplines. Kaul sees "seven, eight people" who are likely to fight for the three medals. The decisive factor will be “who can best cope with the local conditions”.

Stefanie and Michael Kaul, who train the Frankfurt heptathlete Carolin Schäfer in addition to their son, are allowed to fly with them for final preparation and acclimatization to Miyazaki and to the games in Tokyo.

This is very important to the athlete: “My parents see me every day and know exactly which screws to turn.” During the other units, the focus is on the competition simulation: a short warm-up, three attempts in each of the technical disciplines, “and further is it ".

That has nothing to do with the fact that in an emergency this summer it did not work as desired, “we always do it that way”.

Routines shouldn't be set in stone, however.

Those who save a schedule as a screenshot at an early stage and no longer check whether it is still valid can be counterproductive.