Damian Warner went to last summer鈥檚 Paris Olympics as the reigning decathlon champion and saw his dreams of a repeat gold turn to dust after a shocking triple fault in pole vault 鈥 the eighth of 10 events.
Decathletes train all year for a specific event, so when (as Warner puts it lightly) 鈥渋t doesn鈥檛 go anywhere according to your plan,鈥 it鈥檚 hard to handle. The toughest part for him was knowing how much his family 鈥 that includes partner Jen Cotten and the coaches who have been with him since high school 鈥 sacrificed to get him ready for those Games and feeling he had let them down by delivering so short of his potential.聽
That pain phase lasted months longer because of how well known he is in his London, Ont. hometown.
鈥淚 kind of get over it, but then 鈥 I’ll be in the grocery store and people are like: 鈥極h man, so sorry about that.鈥 And it’s like you’re kind of forced to relive these moments hundreds of times more,鈥 Warner said from Gifu, Japan during final preparation for the world athletics championships. 鈥淏ut it shows that a lot of people were tuned in and a lot of people cared.鈥
- Rosie DiManno
Producing one鈥檚 best on the day when it matters most is the goal of every athlete at the worlds, which start Saturday in Tokyo. For Canada鈥檚 team of 59 athletes, that ranges from defending a world title, landing on the podium, making a final or delivering a personal best. And for those like Warner who suffered Olympic disappointment, it鈥檚 another chance to show what they鈥檙e capable of, says Athletics Canada head coach Glenroy Gilbert.
鈥淔or those that maybe missed the mark a little bit in Paris, it’s an opportunity for a bit of redemption. I’m sure that’s not the driving force in how they’re thinking about it, but it’s definitely in the back of their minds.”
Canadians netted three golds, a silver and a bronze in Paris 鈥 and a handful of heartbreaks.
- Sarah Mitton, who was a favourite for shot put gold but faltered in a rain-slicked final, says these worlds are another opportunity to “show people how hard we have worked.”
- Race walker Evan Dunfee, who called himself 鈥減roud but sad鈥 after finishing fifth in Paris, responded in a big way by winning the 35-kilometre event early Saturday in Tokyo. He鈥檒l also compete at 20 kilometres.
- Moh Ahmed, who delivered a thrilling 10,000-metre race聽before his pace declined in the final 50 when he “didn’t have anything left” and fell from second to fourth, is running the 10,000 and 5,000.
For Pierce LePage, Canada’s reigning world champion in decathlon, the heartbreak came just before the Olympics, when he was forced to pull out with a debilitating back injury. Like Warner, he felt he let people down.聽
“I couldn’t show up when they needed me to; I feel like I wrestled with that for a long time.” LePage says he still hasn’t been able to look at the comments on the post announcing he wouldn’t be in Paris. (Spoiler alert: They’re all supportive.)
Damian Warner, front, hugs fellow Canadian Pierce Lepage after the 1500-metre decathlon event at the 2023 world athletic championships in Budapest.
Matthias Schrader/APThe last year has also brought moments of joy: when he woke up from surgery with zero pain, and the first time he was able to do full runs in training and realized he really would be able to compete again.
“Obviously my goal is to keep that world title. I think it might be harder than other years going in, but that’s part of the sport, part of the adversity,” he said. “I’ve been here before and I know what it takes to win.”
Competing in 10 run, jump and throw events over two days means decathletes need to have short memories, so they can focus on the next event.
Warner was recently asked to rank the events and put pole vault surprisingly high in fourth place. 鈥淒epends on the day you ask,鈥 he said laughing.
In the last couple of years, pole vault has shifted from an event that Warner dreads to one that excites him because of the possibilities for improvement:聽“Being 35 and being in the sport for as long as I have, when you have something that you can see that you are getting progress in, that’s always exciting. I think it’s steadily improving and, hopefully, we can avoid any more of those disasters.鈥
He intends to open at 4.60 metres (the height he didn’t make in Paris) or possibly higher depending on the day. Such heights should be achievable, he says, and help conserve energy for the remaining events. He’s made 4.85 at competitions this year, just below his best of 4.90.聽
鈥淵ou can go out there really, really low and guarantee a height, but if you’re trying to win the competition you have to jump quite high, so you’re gonna have to jump those higher heights eventually,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t’s important to trust yourself and understand that you’re out there to compete, and the only way to do that is to go for it.鈥
Energy conservation is a key factor in every decathlon, even more so with the heat and humidity in Tokyo. Warner won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 鈥 and set the Olympic record at 9,018 points 鈥 while LePage set a then-personal best to finish fifth in such conditions.
Said Warner: “If I put the performances together that I know I’m capable of, I’m still one of the best decathletes in the field, so I have a chance to win every single time I compete.”
Warner holds the decathlon records in the 100 metres and 110-metre hurdles and speed is key to his success, but he also has aspirations in pole vault and javelin.聽
鈥淚t’d be nice for at least one or two of these events that I’ve been really working on to show up when it matters, and I think if that happens then I’ll be really happy.鈥
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