Agency :
World record holder Kevin Mayer came out on top as three of the world’s top decathletes resumed international competition on Sunday without leaving their training facilities.
Mayer, German Niklas Kaul and Estonian Maicel Uibo followed the lead of pole vaulters in May by adding another innovative live-streamed event to the depleted track and field under the “Ultimate Garden Clash” banner.
After winning, Mayer told AFP that it was good to return to competition.
“I was stressed all day like I was before a big championship. Especially since we’d never done this before, it was a total unknown,” Mayer said by telephone.
“I’m the world record holder, so you have to take responsibility for your title. I had everything to lose and nothing to gain so I put a lot of pressure on myself, I didn’t know if I’d be good at it.”
Mayer was at a track in Montpellier in France, world champion Kaul indoors in his home town Mainz, Germany, and Uibo in Clermont, Florida.
The constraints ruled out several disciplines, including Kaul’s speciality the javelin.
Instead, the men opened by attempting to clear a pole-vault bar set at 4.00 metres as often as possible in 10 minutes.
World record holder Kevin Mayer came out on top as three of the world’s top decathletes resumed international competition on Sunday without leaving their training facilities.
Mayer, German Niklas Kaul and Estonian Maicel Uibo followed the lead of pole vaulters in May by adding another innovative live-streamed event to the depleted track and field under the “Ultimate Garden Clash” banner.
After winning, Mayer told AFP that it was good to return to competition.
“I was stressed all day like I was before a big championship. Especially since we’d never done this before, it was a total unknown,” Mayer said by telephone.
“I’m the world record holder, so you have to take responsibility for your title. I had everything to lose and nothing to gain so I put a lot of pressure on myself, I didn’t know if I’d be good at it.”
Mayer was at a track in Montpellier in France, world champion Kaul indoors in his home town Mainz, Germany, and Uibo in Clermont, Florida.
The constraints ruled out several disciplines, including Kaul’s speciality the javelin.
Instead, the men opened by attempting to clear a pole-vault bar set at 4.00 metres as often as possible in 10 minutes.
