LePage a quick study in decathlon
Canadian hoping to qualify for world championships in London
OTTAWA — Pierce LePage still feels like he’s got plenty of learning to do, watching closely to see how the world’s best decathletes go about their business.
Just the same, the 21-year-old LePage is making up plenty of ground in a hurry, pushing that much closer to the elites — including fellow Canadian Damian Warner, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist — in a discipline he found almost by accident.
In February 2016, the 6-foot-7 LePage entered an RBC Olympic talent search competition in Toronto without thinking much about it — only to end up winning the competition. He secured himself a ticket to Rio as a spectator and, more importantly, received $10,000 for three years from RBC to help with coaching, development, travel and other training costs. So far, so good. “I feel like I’m still young and figuring things out,” LePage said after completing the opening five events of the two-day decathlon Tuesday at the Canadian Track and Field Championships.
“Going to (elite competitions) and seeing everything, you can see it, you can feel it, that (the world’s best) have done it before. You can see the difference with a veteran athlete, but I feel like I’m there and ready to make that jump.”
LePage’s meet began with a blistering time of 10.59 seconds in the 100 metre dash.
He then leaped 7.33 metres in the long jump, tossed the shot put 13.30 metres and successfully cleared the bar at 2.08 metres in the high jump.
His day concluded with a 47.79 clocking in the 400 metres.
After five events, LePage has 4,330 points, leading the competition — Warner is competing in individual events later in the week, but not in the decathlon — and putting him on pace to crack 8,100 points, which would allow him to compete at the world championships in London later this summer.
“It was a good day, for the most part, everything went as expected,” he said. “It was a really good 400 metres. I wasn’t expecting that too much, but I’m super happy it happened.”
While many were rejoicing at the appearance of the long-lost sun, the heat doesn’t necessarily make for the best conditions for the grind of a decathlon.
LePage and the rest of the decathletes are back at it bright and early Wednesday, completing the final five events: the 110-metre hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and last but not least, the 1,500-metre run.
Again, LePage is learning on the fly as he finds his way through the decathlon discipline, figuring out the best way to get the most out of his body when it counts most.
“As you go through the events, you can see where you gain points, where you lose points and what you have to do for your next events,” he said. “(Wednesday), I have a couple of points to make up and I just have to go from there.”
Still young at his sport, LePage isn’t keen on any comparisons. When asked about potentially challenging Warner at the very top some day, he deflects the question away.
“It’s more about you against yourself,” he said. “It’s you trying to be yourself in all the events and whatever happens, happens. That’s the way I look it.”
Perhaps — just perhaps — Canadians will be cheering for LePage at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
That’s a long way off, but given his unconventional road to here, nothing should be counted out.
LePage entered the RBC talent competition — “a mini-decathlon” — hampered by a torn hamstring and without a clear idea of what was at stake.
The next thing he knew, he was being showered with gifts.
“I was so overwhelmed,” he told Postmedia last year. “I just went there to see where I was at, coming off an injury. Next thing I knew, I won. They’re like, ‘You’ve got funding, you’re going to Rio.’ I’m like, what? That’s insane.”
Pushing hard to make the 8,100-point standard to go to Rio as a competitor, LePage fell just shy.
He topped 8,000 points at a meet in France last fall. If all goes well Thursday, he will be world class, only a year and a half into his new field.