Olympic decathlon champ Damian Warner in contention for another Hypo Meeting title
Canada's Damian Warner is in the hunt for another decathlon Hypo Meeting title.
The London, Ont., native trails Switzerland's Simon Ehammer by two points after the first day of competition on Saturday at Mösle Stadium in Götzis, Austria.
Warner, the reigning Olympic decathlon champion, is trying to win the event for the sixth consecutive time and extend his record-total to seven. The 32-year-old is contesting in his first decathlon of the year at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meet this weekend.
Warner placed first in the men's 100-metre with a time of 10.14 seconds to begin the competition on Saturday. Warner's time was 2-1000ths shy of his personal best and decathlon world best, which he set at the event in 2019 and equalled at Tokyo 2020.
Ehammer finished first in the men's long jump and set a decathlon world record in the discipline with a leap of 8.45m. Warner placed second after his jump of 7.93m.
The final five disciplines will be contested on Sunday of the two-day event.
Fellow Canadian Pierce LePage made it through only two events before registering as a DNF (did not finish). LePage, of Whitby, Ont., placed second in the 100m with a time of 10.35, and posted a long jump of 7.49m, but did not start in the shot put.
In March, Warner became a first-time world athletics indoor champion after he beat Ehammer by 126 points in the seven-event heptathlon.
Warner placed third in the men's 1,000 metres, the final event in Belgrade, Serbia, to overtake Ehammer for his first heptathlon title in three world indoor appearances. Warner also raised his national heptathlon record to 6,489 points.
