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Damian Warner had gone into the Hypo Meeting aiming to become the event’s first six-time winner but he ended up making history in other ways at the World Athletics Challenge – Combined Events meeting in Götzis on Sunday (30).
World decathlon bests of 8.28m in the long jump – a mark which also breaks Edrick Floreal’s Canadian record – and 13.36 in the 110m hurdles helped multiple global medallist Warner to a lifetime best of 8995, smashing his own Canadian record and elevating him to fourth on the world all-time list.
Canadian 1-2 from start to finish
Warner opened his competition with 10.14 (0.7m/s) to lead the 100m – a mark just 0.02 off his own world decathlon best. His 8.28m (1.2m/s) long jump followed before marks of 14.31m in the shot put, 2.09m in the high jump to match his PB and 47.90 in the 400m.
It gave him a score of 4743, the best ever wind-legal day-one score and well ahead of PB pace.
“Everything went well,” said Warner in his trackside interview. “It’s been a long time since I was out here, so to come out here and perform this well is awesome.
“Before I started doing the decathlon, I was a long jumper in high school. I had a couple of injuries and it didn’t quite work out and I kind of gave up on the long jump and moved to the decathlon. It has always kind of picked at me – would I have been able to make it as a long jumper? Today’s result was awesome because it shows if I keep working at it then I can compete with some of the world’s best.”
SOURCE: World Athletics
