PARIS – Damian Warner’s hopes of repeating as Olympic decathlon champion are over.
The 34-year-old from London, Ont., knocked the bar down on all three attempts in the pole vault to fall out of medal contention.
Warner was sitting in second with 6,428 points, 72 behind Germany’s Leo Neugebauer, after seven events.
After missing on his vault attempts, he dropped to 17th with two events to go.
Warner was looking to defend his Olympic title from the Tokyo Games in 2021.
He had set an Olympic record with 9,018 points.
Warner was looking to join American Bob Mathias (1948, 1952), Great Britain’s Daley Thompson (1980, 1984) and American Ashton Eaton (2012, 2016) as the only two-time Olympic gold medallists in the men’s decathlon.
Norway’s Skotheim Sander also failed to register a successful vault after entering the event in third place.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 3, 2024.