Men's Decathlon (IAAF World Junior Championships)
by Bidz Dela Cruz
It was Germany's Jan Felix Knobel who topped the event with a score of 7,896 points, beating first-day leader Eduard Mihan of Belarus by two points. Team USA's Chase Dalton of BYU finished 11th with 7,174 points.
Setting 4 personal records of Thursday's final five events have propelled Leutz, a freshman from Bismarck, N.D., to move up five spots in the standings. He opened the day with a winning time of 14.23 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and followed it with a mark of 139 feet, 10 inches in the discus throw, which helped him be the ninth placer after seven events. He also finished with a PR of 4 minutes, 40.37 seconds in the 1,500-meter run. That run was more than 2 seconds quicker than his previous best from the USA Junior Nationals in June, where he shaved 18 seconds to qualify for the world meet.
"I felt I had a much better day today," Leutz said. "Things were clicking in all the events. By the end of the competition, I felt like I knew all the guys and realized what a great experience this has been," he added.
The top 3 finishers were Jan Felix Knobel (1st) of Germany, Eduard Mihan (2nd) of Belarus, and Mihail Dudas (3rd) of Serbia. Mihan led through eight events before Knobel overtook him in the javelin throw. Knobel's winning mark of 217 feet, 5 inches gave him a 107-point lead heading into the 1,500-meter run, and his time of 4:47.44 was enough to win the competition. Knobel finished with 7896 points.
