Europe celebrated three gold medals on a glorious second evening of the IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz.
Germany had a double triumph, as Niklas Kaul overcame a 370-point deficit to win the decathlon and Alina Kenzel followed the country’s great tradition with victory in the shot put, and Poland clinched their second title of the championships with Klaudia Maruszewska’s victory in the javelin.
With two disciplines left of any multi-events competition, if you are trailing by as much as Kaul was behind Belarusian Maksim Andraloits it would seem an impossible gap to close.
But Kaul, 18, the world youth champion from 12 months ago, still had a trump card to play - his brilliance in the javelin.
After the end of the eight event, the pole vault, Andraloits led with 6818 from Estonia’s Johannes Erm (6477) and Kaul (6448) before an amazing performance from the German.
After efforts of 65.42m and 58.55m, Kaul then broke new ground with his final throw as he sent the spear soaring to 71.59m, a world decathlon under-20 record.
Andraloits could do no better, as his 48.79m was a personal best, while Erm’s 54.19m was his furthest ever, but they could not touch Kaul.
The points variation was stunning - Kaul banking 914, a massive 343 more than Andraloits with Erm scoring 651.
It meant the difference between leader Andraloits and now Kaul in second was just 27 going into the 1500m where the German delivered in style again.
The top eight in the second race all achieved personal bests and as Norway’s Toralv Opsal won (4:21.61), Kaul was second in 4:21.70 for 800 points with Andraloits in eighth in 4:43.65, a time which brought 657.
Gold was the German’s with a championship record of 8162 with both silver medallist Andraloits (8046) and bronze medallist Erm (7879) landing national under-20 records in a memorable decathlon for European Athletics.
If shot putter Kenzel needs any inspiration, she only has to look at her fellow Germans, with David Storl and Christina Schwanitz holding three world and seven European titles between them.
Now the country has the world under-20 champion after Kenzel led all the way in the final after her opening 16.91m, a mark which she increased to 17.58m in the third round for gold from China’s Jiayuan Song (16.36m) and American Alyssa Wilson (16.33m).
'I worked hard in training and it paid off,' said Kenzel, 18.'The gold medal is everything I have dreamed of.'
There was further medal success for Germany in the women’s 3000m as SPAR European Cross Country Junior champion Konstanze Klosterhalfen won bronze in the 3000m in 8:46.74 behind Ethiopian Beyenu Degefa (8:41.76), who broke a 22-year-old championship record, and Bahrain’s Dalila Abdulkadir Gosa (8:46.42).
A day after Konrad Bukowiecki’s shot put gold for Poland, the hosts were on the top of the podium again after another brilliant performance in the women’s javelin.
Maruszewska, 18, hit a personal best of 57.59m with her opening throw which was enough for glory from South African Jo-Ane Van Dyk, who gave her a scare with a third round 57.32m, and Türkiye’s Eda Tugsuz (56.71m).
'After what I did today, I must admit that I am in shock,' said Maruszewska, speaking to sport.pl.
Europe’s day of medals did not end there as Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou (7.91m) won the men’s long jump silver behind Cuban Maykel Masso (8.00m) and ahead of Australian Darcy Roper (7.88m).
And then in the final event of the second day, the men’s 100m, Italy’s Filippo Tortu took silver in 10.24 as American Noah Lyles won in 10.17 and Mario Burke (10.26), of Barbados, was third.
The women’s 100m is the last event of today, and Poland will be looking for more gold with Ewa Swoboda another of the stars of their team. She reached the semis with the quickest qualifying time of 11.10.