Niklas Kaul (GERMANY)
Decathlon
In Niklas Kaul, Eaton selected an athlete who may challenge him one day. The World Youth Champion for the decathlon set a World Youth Best in scoring 8,002 points to shatter the prior Best of 7,864 set by Cedric Dubler of Australia. The mark also set a championship record, as the decathlon debuted at this year's event.
The most impressive moment of Kaul's campaign was his ability to recover after a disastrous run in the first event of Day 2, the 110-meter hurdles, wherein the German split the top of the first hurdle and struggled home in 15.44. The run moved him down in the decathlon rankings from seventh to fifth. However, his strongest event in the javelin was yet to come, as he threw 78.20m (worth 1015 points) to seize the lead with just the 1500m remaining. He ran 4:42.29 to take third in his heat of the 1500m, but the effort was enough to hold on to his lead as he won gold and set a new record.
Even after 10 events, Kaul was not done. He took second in the individual javelin throw with a heave of 78.05m behind surprise winner Paul Jacobus Botha of Russia (78.49m). Kaul, whose specialty is the javelin, entered the championship as the favorite with a personal best of 83.94m.
Ashton Eaton on Niklas Kaul: "An overall impressive performance in all 11 events (Kaul took silver in the individual javelin as well as gold in the decathlon). What caught my attention was his response in performance after his hurdle setback. To retain focus and move on to achieve; that is senior decathlon mentality."