Hans Van Alphen has already qualified for the Olympics and is busy preparing for London. He led the field after the first five events Saturday but lost his lead to Dutchman Eelco Sintnicolaas yesterday.
Van Alphen needed to make up around four seconds in the closing 1,500 metres race to leapfrog Sintnicolaas, and managed to beat his rival by 6.11 seconds.
"I have no words to describe this", the Belgian smiled. "It's unreal, I didn't think I could do it. This feels like grabbing a medal at the World Championships."
Van Alpen collected 8,519 points to edge Sintnicolaas by 13 points, and crushing his own previous Belgian mark, which was at 8,200 points. "The pieces of the puzzle are finally falling together. This is what I worked really hard for over the past three years."
The excellent result in Goetzis boosts Van Alphen's hopes for London. "I am not going to say anything crazy, but you always dream of an Olympic medal. But I do realise there are a lot of candidates. I just keep focusing on the top-8 for now on."
"I didn't have any heavy injuries the past years, which explains the excellent results", he explained. 8,519 points is the world's best performance by any athlete this year.
