- Simon Ehammer wins the gold medal in the heptathlon in a heart-stopping final at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
- In the last discipline, the 1000 m run, the Swiss defended his lead in the overall ranking by a measly 11 points.
- For Switzerland it is the fourth World Cup title ever indoors.
Simon Ehammer started the final 1000 m run with 153 points or the equivalent of around 14 seconds ahead of his toughest competitor Sander Skotheim. The third-placed Norwegian was clearly stronger than the Swiss over the middle distance – in contrast to second-placed Ken Mullings (BAH).
But Skotheim couldn’t fully make up for the mortgage and fell behind Ehammer in the final bill. However, only by a tiny margin: Skotheim crossed the finish line just under 13 seconds ahead of Ehammer – and so he was just 11 points behind the Swiss in the overall standings. The 24-year-old from Appenzeller became world indoor champion for the first time with a new Swiss record of 6,418 points. Two years ago in Belgrade he won the silver medal.
Keep gold with you on the last lap
After four of the five 200 m laps, it still looked like Ehammer would have to settle for silver. The unleashed Skotheim was already around 13 seconds ahead of the Appenzeller. But Ehammer threw everything into the balance on the last lap and crossed the finish line just in time with a clear personal best time of 2:46.03 minutes.
Ehammer is only the fourth indoor world champion from Switzerland. Werner Günthör (ball/1991), Julie Baumann (60 m hurdles/1993) and Mujinga Kambundji (60 m/2022) had achieved this before the all-around athlete and long jumper.
Turned up the heat in the 5th and 6th disciplines
Ehammer had four disciplines after the first took 2nd intermediate place. At the start of the second day of the competition he achieved the improvement he had hoped for. No one was faster than the Swiss over 60 m hurdles, meaning Ehammer was able to reduce his gap to leader Mullings to 42 points.
In the pole vault, the 6th discipline, Ehammer was the only athlete to clear 5.20 m and thus took the lead in the overall ranking. Before the 1000 m run he was 140 points ahead of Mullings and 153 points ahead of Skotheim. This reserve should be enough to gold – wafer-thin.
Silver winner Skotheim totaled 6407 points. Bronze went to Estonian Johannes Erm (6340), who clearly intercepted Mullings (6242).