A painful foot injury brutally stopped the decathlon world champion Niklas Kaul's medal hunt in Tokyo.

The 23-year-old Mainz competed in the 400-meter run on Wednesday, but his body went on strike.

In the second bend, Kaul slowed down, sank to the ground and clapped his hands in horror over his face, which was contorted with pain.

The co-favorite on precious metal had to be driven out of the interior of the Olympic Stadium in a wheelchair - a bitter end for Kaul, who advanced to become a superstar of German athletics in 2019.

At the bitterest moment of his young career, he did not want to comment on his mishap after leaving.

"I'll be in the stadium tomorrow and say something about it," said Kaul with his black cap pulled down over his face.

Then he disappeared disappointed from the arena.

“That is extremely tragic.

He was fit at the right moment.

A dream came off, ”said Idriss Gonschinska, General Director of the German Athletics Association, regretting the bitter end.

There was initially no detailed diagnosis.

"What exactly he has, I can't say yet," said DLV chief physician Andrew Lichtenthal, "his jump joint is compressed".

This led to swelling on the ankle.

After resting in the Olympic village, Kaul will undergo an MRI examination in a polyclinic on Thursday morning to get an accurate diagnosis.

"I hope that it is not so bad and that he will come back quickly," said Gonschinska.

Bitter end after top marks

Kaul sustained the injury in the last attempt at the high jump, which he completed with 2.11 meters and a personal record.

Then the World Cup hero from Doha in 2019 hobbled into the catacombs, where the German team doctors tried to make him fit for the final race of the first day of competition in the short time between the high jump and the run over the stadium lap.

Vain.

With 3380 points he was in 13th place in the interim ranking.

Kaul had a solid start into the competition with 11.22 seconds over 100 meters.

Then he also achieved a best performance in the long jump with 7.36 meters.

In the shot put, however, it was only 14.55 meters.

Then he said: “So far it has been fun.” With the remarkable performance in the first four disciplines, he had created a good basis for the race to catch up on the second day of the competition, where his really strong disciplines come.

Next in the decathlon race is Olympic fourth, Kai Kazmirek, who finished the first day solidly with 13th place and 4,251 points.

"It's going normally, but not well, so it can go on," said the athlete from LG Rhein-Neuwied, who had to throw up several times after the 400 meters.

The medal fight is dominated by Damien Warner, who had the best results in three disciplines and scored 2966 points as number one. With 8.24 meters, the Canadian would have won bronze in the long jump individual competition. At the meeting in Götzis in May, he showed that the Olympic third from 2016 is in top form, where he missed the 9000 point mark by just five points. World record holder Kevin Mayer (France) is fourth with 2662 points.

In the heptathlon, the former vice world champion Carolin Schäfer finished the first day in seventh place with 3801 points.

Despite an eight-month break due to side effects of a corona vaccination, she presented herself in strong form.

"I'm in good shape, everything is possible," said the 29-year-old from Frankfurt.

Vanessa Grimm from Königsteiner LV is in 18th place after the first four disciplines with 3649 points.

Ex-European champion Anouk Vetter from the Netherlands is in the lead with 3968 points.

World champion Katarina Johnson-Thomson had to give up.

The Briton was unable to finish the 200-meter race due to a foot injury.