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Niklas Kauls complaints appeared after the 100 meter run
Photo: IMAGO/BEAUTIFUL SPORTS/Axel Kohring / IMAGO/Beautiful Sports
World Champion Niklas Kaul suffered a setback in the first decathlon qualification for the World and European Championships on Saturday in Ratingen.
The 24-year-old from Mainz stopped the competition because he felt dizzy.
He started over 400 meters, but stopped after a few meters.
Kai Kazmirek, who was third at the World Championships, also dropped out shortly after the start of the last discipline of the first day of competition because he was not satisfied with his performance.
"I had a real headache and dizziness," said Kaul, disappointed.
The problems in the neck area had already occurred after the 100 meter run, the first discipline.
From then on he fought his way through the disciplines rather laboriously.
Kaul's start at the World Cup is not in jeopardy
As the defending champion, Kaul has a wild card for the World Championships from July 15th to 24th in Eugene/Oregon, but still has to surpass the European Championship standard of 8100 points in order to be allowed to compete in the home title fights in Munich in mid-August.
He left it open whether he would try again in three weeks at the meeting in Götzis, Austria, or whether he would only try to surpass the EM norm at the World Cup.
The 31-year-old Kazmirek, on the other hand, wants to compete in Götzis.
Since his gold triumph in Doha in 2019, Kaul has only completed one decathlon, in 2021 in Götzis he scored 8263 points.
Simon Ehammer showed an outstanding performance on the first day.
The Swiss took the lead with 4583 points and excelled in the long jump: with 8.30 meters he set a world record within a decathlon.
Second place went to Nico Becker from Dormagen with 4320 points.
Olympic seventh Carolin Schäfer finished the first four disciplines with 3643 points as second on the day.
Sophie Weißenberger from Leverkusen took the lead with 3696 points.
In order to be able to start at the World and European Championships, 6420 points must be surpassed, with 6250 points you only get the right to start at the home European Championship in Munich.
cev/dpa/sid