PARIS – A “devastated” Damian Warner has withdrawn from the Olympic men’s decathlon competition.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 title from the Tokyo Games in 2021 where he had set an Olympic record with 9,018 points.
Markus Rooth of Norway took the Olympic crown, capturing gold with 8,796 points. Neugebauer won silver and Lindon Victor of Grenada claimed bronze.
Warner, who did not stick around to talk to reporters Saturday, 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.
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Norway’s Skotheim Sander also failed to register a successful vault after entering the event in third place.
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In the women’s 100 metres, Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, Que., just missed out on advancing to Saturday night’s final.
The 25-year-old ran 11.10 to finish fifth in Heat 3 one day after running a personal best and breaking her own Canadian record with a time of 10.95 seconds.
“I’m happy,” she said. “For sure would have wanted to go to the final. But that’s fine, I have the 200 metres tomorrow so my goal is just to go there and execute what I didn’t execute today.”
The first round of the women’s 200 is on Sunday morning at Stade de France.
Leduc did find the atmosphere of an Olympic semifinal to be different than what she’s used to.
“I wouldn’t say it was intimidating but it’s for sure different than what I’m used to doing back home,” she said. “It’s not the same level.”
“The energy is different, it’s higher,” she added. “So just take that and put that in my next race and just learn from that and take it in to be able to do that in the future.”
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The University of Laval product came into the Olympics enjoying a breakout year in which she had snapped multiple Canadian records.
She broke Angela Bailey’s 36-year-old national mark in the 100 with a 10.96 back in April. She then broke the 200 record with a time of 22.36 seconds in June.
Leduc had not run faster than 11.38 seconds in the 100 and 23.62 in the 200 last year.
She said she would not have guessed she’d be 12th at an Olympics if asked three months ago.
“I’d be surprised,” Leduc said. “I would say, ‘Hmm, I’m not sure.’ Who knows but for now I’m just really happy with the result.”
Elsewhere on the track, star sprinter Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., moved on to the semifinals of the men’s 100 metres.
De Grasse, who won bronze in the event at the last two Games, finished third in Heat 7 with a time of 10.07 seconds.
Kenny Bednarek of the United States paced the group with a 9.97, while Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme ran a season-best time of 9.98.
De Grasse has won bronze in the 100 at the last two Olympics, with a personal-best time of 9.89 seconds at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
He owns a season best of 10.00 seconds, which he ran in Finland, meeting the Olympic standard on June 18.
The semifinals and final for the men’s 100 will take place Sunday night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 3, 2024.
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