By Sudipto Ganguly
TOKYO (Reuters) – Canada’s Damian Warner extended his lead on the final day of men’s decathlon on Thursday at the Tokyo Olympics after setting a new Games record in the 110 metres hurdles.
A day after tying his own world record in the 100m and bettering the Games mark in long jump, the 31-year-old got off to another strong start on a hot and humid morning at the Olympic Stadium.
He ran the 110 metres hurdles in 13.46, taking one-hundreth of a second from the previous record set by German Frank Busemann in the Atlanta Games in 1996.
Warner then threw his discus 48.67 metres and cleared 4.90m in the pole vault – the final event of the morning session.
The Canadian came into the final day with a lead of 81 points over Australian Ash Moloney but extended his advantage to 221, accumulating 7,490 points with two events remaining.
There was no change to the potential medal places from overnight with Moloney in second spot ahead of Canadian Pierce LePage, who had 7,175 points.
Warner arrived in Tokyo as the leading decathlete in the world in 2021 after scoring 8,995 points at a meet in May – the fifth best in history with France’s decathlon world record holder Kevin Mayer’s 9,126 from 2018 topping the all-time list.
Mayer, who won silver in the Rio de Janeiro Games five years back, continued to stay in touch of the medal positions, finishing the morning session in fourth place with 7,129 points.
The athletes will be back in the evening for the javelin throw and 1500m race to finish the all-round athletics test, which covers 10 disciplines spread over two days.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Michael Perry)
