It was the last attempt to save the season and make it to the home European Championships in Munich in August.

But in the heat of Texas, what little hope Andreas Bechmann had left after the difficulties of the past few weeks melted away.

At the Thorpe Cup in Dallas, the traditional duel between the German and American all-around athletes, the 22-year-old withdrew on Saturday before the fourth discipline, the high jump.

The muscular problems that had slowed down the Frankfurt Eintracht decathlete several times had occurred again.

Severe Corona consequences

"At the end of April he was in such a good mood that I would have believed him capable of setting the standard for the World Championships right away," says Bechmann's trainer Jürgen Sammert.

Then the U-23 European champion of 2021 apparently caught the corona virus for the second time.

The infection was not noticed for a long time, only afterwards, during a blood test shortly before Pentecost.

The consequences occurred earlier: again and again "the flexors close," says Sammert.

Bechmann had to write off the World Cup, he kept his focus on the European Championship.

Top performance at 40 degrees

The Hessian had the norm in his pocket since his continental triumph in the youth field, but in the national ranking he is only fourth with 8142 points.

In the USA, Bechmann wanted to increase his previous record and grab one of the three coveted tickets.

"He wouldn't have traveled there if he hadn't felt fit enough for it," says Sammert.

The conditions were difficult even without the individual worries: the delegation only arrived on Friday, a day later, at around 40 degrees, maximum performance was required.

There was no room for adaptation to climate and time.

Carolin Schäfer does without World Cup

Bechmann is not the only Hessian all-rounder who had imagined something different this summer.

Club colleague Carolin Schäfer, who trains together with decathlon world champion Niklas Kaul in Mainz, canceled her participation in the World Cup in Oregon a week ago and was not on the nomination list of the German Athletics Association "because of a training backlog".

The 2017 silver medalist had gotten off to a tough start this outdoor season.

In Ratingen, the 30-year-old, whose best performance is 6836 points, was only the second-best German with 6170 points and missed the World Cup norm, but would have been eligible to start if she had been in the world rankings.

Now she has announced that she wants to concentrate 100 percent on the European Championship.

Olympic participant Vanessa Grimm will experience neither the one nor the other major event as an active person.

The Königsteiner LV heptathlete, who leads the national best list this year with her 6323 points from the meeting in Götzis, wanted to risk the double burden.

But at the end of June, the 25-year-old tore a partial cruciate ligament in her knee during a test competition.

"Shocked, stunned and incredibly sad" Grimm has to take a longer break.

In the all-around, a Hessian domain for years, the worm is in 2022.

But there are also cancellations in the individual disciplines.

At the weekend, long jumper Maryse Luzolo had to pass for the World Championships: During training on Thursday, the 27-year-old twisted her ankle and injured a ligament in her foot.

The woman from Frankfurt, who is also starting for Königsteiner LV, wants to be fit again by the time of the European Championships.

"I've never experienced such a series of injuries," says Sammert, who also trains Luzolo.

The advantage of this is: "It can only get better."