By Mitch Phillips
TOKYO (Reuters) – Canada’s former Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner, one of only four men to surpass the 9,000 points mark, withdrew from the world championships event before it started on Saturday after failing to recover from an Achilles injury.
Warner, 35, won Olympic gold in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and had been desperate to try to match that with world gold after collecting two silvers from his eight previous appearances.
However, his lane remained empty for the opening 100 metres in another huge disappointment for him, after he crashed out of the Olympics last year after three no-heights in the pole vault.
The man who took his title in Paris, Norway’s Markus Rooth, is also absent with injury, leaving the competition intriguingly open.
Rooth’s compatriot Sander Skotheim won a fair play award when, having also failed to register a height in the pole vault in Paris, he opted to remain in the competition to pace Rooth through the final 1,500 metres.
Defending champion Pierce LePage of Canada should again be in the mix, but he had a disappointingly slow 10.84 seconds in the 100 metres to get things going.
The decathletes will next take on the long jump and shot put on Saturday morning before returning in the evening session for the high jump and 400 metres. The event concludes on Sunday, the final day of the championships.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips; Editing by Tom Hogue)
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