Erm told the awaiting press pack he had: "Been in shock. I had calmed down, only to go into shock again."

"I have so many emotions, so much energy. During the competition, I was complaining that I couldn't sleep – but I still can't!"

"I train every day for competition, but you can't really train for interviews and experiences like this," he added, noting that he hadn't had time to analyze his performance – though of course any improvements would not have altered the net outcome.

He added that once he had calmed down a bit more, some rest would be in order. "I don't know if I know how to rest at the moment. My legs are already itching to train!"

The news has also come as somewhat of a boon during a particularly tense political and security climate of late.

After lying in second place after day one of the decathlon at the European Championships in Rome, Erm put in strong performances in the javelin and other day two events to emerge overall winner with 8,764 points.

This puts him in an elite club of just seven Estonian decathletes to have been in the medals at major outdoor athletics meetings, and is just 51 point shy of the domestic record put in by Erki Nool, olympic gold medalist in 2000.

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