The European Athletics Championships decathlon in 2026 took a scandalous turn, as a controversial error in the pole vault saw athletes jumping the wrong height repeatedly.
The
European Athletics Championships in Birmingham saw a scandalous error being made in Thursday's morning session, as the men's decathlon participants were preparing for their attempts at 4,80.
One of the groups however failed to register that the jumps from 4,70 were over or the organizers simply forgot what was going on, failing to lift the bar higher to 4,80. This meant that all the athletes that were jumping over 4,80 were in fact still going over 4,70.
After the error was realized, organizers forced the successful athletes to return and do it all over again. This naturally didn't go down well with the athletes, who'd thought they had already succeeded and were more tired due to their unfruitful attempts.
Birmingham has suffered from extremely windy conditions throughout the Championships, and on Thursday morning there was even scorching heat to add to the inconveniences. This was especially apparent for participants in the decathlon, who suffered the most given they had the most events to complete.
The problem wasn't distributed equally, as only one group ended up suffering. Luckily (or unluckily for the other group) at least one group got to go about their business normally.
For example, the decathlon's current leader
Leo Neugebauer was forced to wait for a very long time with all the commotion going on. Sadly for him his consequent attempts at 4,80 were unsuccessful, until something miraculous happened.
To add even more layers to the nonsense unfolding in the heat, Neugenbauer and France's
Makenson Gletty were even allowed unprecedented fourth attempts at 4,80. Gletty failed to convert this special exception, but Neugenbauer succeeded at the fourth time of asking, even going over 4,90 later.
The event managed to continue normally after this. Such an episode has likely never unfolded at the European Championships, and this surely won't be the last we hear of it.
Don't miss: European Athletics Championships 2026 Medal Table
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