Sdoes it speak to the honorees when they receive an award for an attitude they take for granted? Or is that a sign that something can’t be right with everyone else? “I’m very happy about the award,” says Niklas Kaul diplomatically, “but I was also surprised about it.”
Together with the Swiss Simon Ehammer, the world and European champion received the fair play prize of German sport on Thursday evening in the Biebrich Castle. “You are quite the best competitors,” Thomas Weikert, President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, praised the decathletes for their attitude in his laudatory speech.
“It only works together”
At the European Championships in August 2022 in Munich, they fought for gold and silver, pushed each other to their best performance for two days, but always remained fair and friendly in their dealings with each other. Ehammer led for nine disciplines, Kaul was at the top after the tenth and took the title.
Unforgotten how they stood arm in arm on the track after the 1500 meter run and beamed with joy as they waited to see who had collected more points? “My favorite picture,” says Kaul, but for him the best thing about it is the background, because you can see other decathletes hugging and congratulating each other for their competition. “The award is representative of our sport,” was the conclusion of Germany’s athlete of the year: “It only works together.”
Excellent Niklas Kaul (left) and Simon Ehammer: “It only works together”
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Image: dpa
The harmony of the protagonists was even evident in the outfits in the Biebrich Castle. As agreed, both wore a casual T-shirt with a smart suit and complemented each other in the conversation. “Decathlon is the team sport of athletics,” says Kaul. “You build each other up,” adds Ehammer. In every competition there comes a point at which things are going badly and there is a risk of elimination. “If you don’t have anyone to help you, you won’t do it for long,” says Kaul.
The fact that the two protagonists are so different gives an additional attraction: Ehammer, 23 years old, 1.84 meters tall, weighs only 80 kilos, is a jumper-sprinter type who flies away from the competition on the first day. Kaul, 25 years old, 1.90 meters, 90 kilos, is a little harder to get going, has his strengths on the second day.
Of course, they don’t share all the secrets. “I wonder if I can ever learn his handball whip,” says Ehammer of Kaul’s brilliant javelin technique. “How he can jump 8.45, he might tell me after Paris?”, Kaul Ehammer addresses world-class ability in the long jump – and at the same time the dream destination of their journey together: the Olympic Games 2024.
On the way there, they go different ways, also when starting the upcoming season with the World Cup in Budapest as the highlight. While Ehammer will start in Götzis at Pentecost, Kaul only wants to cover the full distance three weeks later in Ratingen. Before that, he plans to compete in individual competitions in order to improve his technique in a targeted manner: “Set new impulses”, is the thought of the champion, who always knows how much is still to be done despite all the successes. He decided not to go to a training camp: “I have to go to university too.”
