PARIS – Damian Warner has withdrawn from the Olympic men’s decathlon competition.
The 34-year-old from London, Ont., fell out of medal contention at the tail end of Saturday’s morning session after he knocked the bar down on all three attempts in the pole vault.
The Canadian Olympic Committee made the announcement Saturday evening saying, “understandably, Damian and his team are devastated.”
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 18th with two events to go.
Warner was defending his Olympic title from the Tokyo Games in 2021 where 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.
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