(ats) With a total of 6363 points, the Appenzell resident smashed his Swiss record by 78 pts. Warner totaled 6,489.
This is the 9th Swiss medal in the history of the Indoor Worlds, the day after the coronation of Mujinga Kambundji in the 60m.
Simon Ehammer allowed himself the luxury of beating the bronze medalist of the Tokyo Olympics, the Australian Ashley Moloney, 3rd at 19 points from the German side.
The TV Teufen athlete thus brilliantly erases his double heartbreak from last season. He had first seen his hopes shattered at the European indoors in Torun by not crossing any bar in the pole vault, the penultimate discipline of the heptathlon, when he was launched towards the silver medal.
Rebelote in the spring: barely recovered from pubalgia, Ehammer failed to achieve the Olympic minima due to three zero jumps during the Götzis decathlon. But this immensely talented 22-year-old came to his senses, forged his mind and prepared – without the slightest physical glitch – to achieve this feat in Belgrade.
He did it with impressive mastery for an athlete of his age: beating his personal bests in the 60m (6”72) and in the height (2m05), on Friday, then in the pole vault (5m10) on Sunday.
The Appenzeller also shone with a leap of 8m04 in the length, his favorite discipline.
He approached the last discipline, the 1000 m, with 23 points ahead of Warner. But the Canadian broke away from the start and left the Swiss no chance: 2’39” against 2”53, more than enough to make up for this disbursement of 23 points.
It doesn’t matter, or almost: Ehammer has validated his entry among the greats, four years after his bronze medal in juniors, in the decathlon of the World Championships.
Another German, Andri Oberholzer, took an amazing and unexpected 5th place
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