Two Canadians are sitting in medal position as the first day of men’s decathlon wrapped at the Tokyo Olympics.
Damian Warner is in first following five events, with a total of 4,722 points. An Australian, Ashley Moloney, sits in second with 4,641 points. Then another Canadian – Pierce LePage – is in third with 4,529 points.
In decathlon, athletes score points based on their performance in 10 events. Then, the points are totalled and the athlete with the highest total points wins. The decathlon events, held over two days of competition, are: 100-metre, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-metre, 110-metre hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500-metre.
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Warner handily won the 100-metre race to start the competition with a time of 10.12 seconds, tying his own decathlon world record.
In long jump, the 31-year-old from London, Ont., soared 8.24 metres, the longest in Olympic decathlon history, and a distance that would have earned him a bronze medal in the open men’s long jump earlier in the week.
LePage was sitting just behind Warner in points after the first three events, but the Australian Moloney pulled ahead in the high jump and won the 400-metre, pushing him into second place overall.
Warner is the No. 1-ranked decathlete in the world this year after shattering his Canadian record at the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, Austria. His score of 8,995 there was the fourth-best in history.
Thursday’s events are the 110-metre hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the 1,500 metres.
—With files from The Canadian Press
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