Canada’s Warner wins Hypo decathlon

GOETZIS, AUSTRIA — Canadian decathlete Damian Warner won the Hypo Meeting for a third time Sunday.

Warner, from London, Ont., earned 8,591 points over the 10 events, 52 more than secondplace finisher Eelco Sintnicolaas, of the Netherlands. Germany’s Rico Freimuth was third, with 8,365 points.

Leading after Saturday’s events, Warner added to his cushion by finishing first in the 110-metre hurdles with a time of 13.54 seconds.

The 2016 Olympic bronze medallist was then able to hold off a late charge by Sintnicolaas, by finishing eighth in the discus, 16th in the pole vault, 14th in the javelin and seventh in the 1,500 metres.

Sintnicolaas moved from fifth to second when he finished first in the pole vault. He finished sixth in javelin, to reduce Warner’s lead to just 46 points, but lost ground to Warner in the final event by finishing eighth in the 1,500.

“It’s a hard-fought medal. It means a lot to me to win it for a third time,” said Warner, who will not compete in another international decathlon before the world championships in London in August.

“Based on what I did here in some events, I am very confident going forward.”

Pierce LePage, of Whitby, was 17th with 7,894 points.

The 22-year-old Belgian finished with 7,013 points, and joined American world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Russia’s Larisa Turchinskaya and Sweden’s Carolina Klueft as the only female athletes to have achieved the feat.

“Last year was incredible and I thought: ‘Maybe that’s my best.’ But I just tried to do even better today,” said the 22-year-old Belgian, who won Olympic gold in Rio.

Carolin Schaefer, of Germany, finished second with 6,836 points, and Laura Ikauniece Admidina, of Latvia, was 21 points further behind in third.