Doha 2019 Countdown: Part 2
Georni has completed two decathlons so far this year, the first to win the South American Championships in Lima in May for the third time with 7784, leading to his invitation to Doha as one of the area champions. His second decathlon was also in Lima, finishing 4th behind Damian Warner, Lindon Victor and Pierce Lepage and one place ahead of Leonel Suarez at the Pan American Games in August, scoring 7913. His personal best score of 8048 in his home country Venezuela in May 2018 showcased the speed and 16+ metre shot strength that he will bring to the Championships.
Photo credit: Oscar Muñoz Badilla
Fredrik has been looking for the opportunity to bring everything together in 2019, and his score of 8165 from Götzis in 2018 was enough to secure that opportunity next month in Doha. After a strong start to the year at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, just 17 points short of the Swedish record when finishing 4th behind Jorge Ureña, Tim Duckworth and Ilya Shkurenyev, Fredrik has improved a number of his individual events throughout the year, particularly his throws, closing in on 15m in the shot and exceeding 45m for the first time in the discus. Fredrik won his 4th national decathlon title this year, and his season’s best is 8022 from Götzis in May.
Photo credit: Olavi Kaljunen, Trackpic
The 2016 European Champion has had an eventful year with flashes of brilliance interspersed with bad luck and some niggling injuries. His 2018 Götzis score of 8007 was not enough to qualify directly for Doha either directly or indirectly, and so the hunt was on in 2019 for a score in excess of 8200. After a star turn at the Belgian indoor championships in Gent where he cleared a 5.50m pole vault, Thomas recovered from a frustrating competition in Glasgow to attack 8200 at the South African Championships in April. Day 1 was going brilliantly until the power went out, and with it the chance of a valid score. But the score came at the Décastar competition in Talence, as he exceeded 8200 with 14 points to spare – his best decathlon since his 8332 at the Rio Olympics.
Photo credit: Michel Fisquet, Team Photo Marseille
At the start of 2019, Niklas’ decathlon best was 8220 from his 4th place at the European Championships in Berlin, which secured his spot in Doha. As we go into these championships, his best is now 350 points higher and a qualification mark for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Despite finishing 4th in Götzis in his first decathlon of the year behind Damian Warner, Lindon Victor and Maicel Uibo, with a PB of 8330, Niklas was less than happy with his performance, still feeling slow and describing his performance as hard work after a heavy training period. But another 6 weeks made all the difference, and in July the German had the mother of all battles with Estonia’s Johannes Erm to win the European U23 title in Gävle and position himself as number 2 in the world in 2019 going into the World Championships. There won’t be a rematch with Erm, who is skipping Doha, but another 6 weeks after the decathlon in Sweden, there was a 78.49 metre javelin at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin. His best coming into the year was a few metres beyond 70m. It is now only 1.5 metres short of 80m.
Photo credit: Michel Fisquet, Team Photo Marseille
Check out our previews and reviews from the meetings mentioned in this post (below) and click on the athletes’ name to see more information, including videos
• 2019 European Indoors review
• 2019 Götzis preview
• 2019 Götzis review
• 2019 Talence preview
• 2019 Talence review
• 2019 European U23 preview
• 2019 European U23 review
Comments