Vaulting toward Olympic success
New coach working to bring out the ‘wild side’ in dedicated Canadian decathlete
They make an interesting pair, the world’s greatest athlete and his 69-yearold coach from Calgary by way of Transylvania.
Take the pole vault : Damian Warner is world class in the 100 metres, the 110-metre hurdles and the long jump and gets by in the decathlon’s other events. But pole vaulting has long been his personal kryptonite.
“It’s still an issue,” says Warner, who finished second in the hurdles to Canada’s Jonathan Cabral at the Harry Jerome/Vancouver Sun Track Classic on Tuesday. Warner crossed the line in 13.64 to Cabral’s 13.58. Canadian Anastas Elipolulos was third in 13.73.
“I’m searching for a way to fix it. The good thing is I’ve got two years.”
Then again, that’s why he hired Les Gramantik, the aforementioned coach who can never be accused of overthinking things.
“He’s not a natural pole vaulter,” Gramantik says from Calgary. “Pole vaulters are usually a bit on the wild side. My old coach used to say, ‘Hold the pole high, run fast and don’t be a chicken.’ “He pauses.
“Maybe it’s not the most scientific coaching, but there’s some truth in that.”
And maybe there’s enough truth in this relationship to put Warner on the top of the podium in Tokyo come 2020.
Warner, the 28-year-old from London, Ont., jettisoned his Ontario-based coaching team and joined forces with Gramantik a year and a half ago as part of his quest for gold at the 2020 Summer Games. Given that the decision came after his bronzemedal turn in Rio two years ago, the timing was interesting. As it happens, the early returns on the new/old partnership have been equally interesting.
Last August, Warner contracted a stomach virus at the world track championships in London and finished a disappointing fifth. Two and a half months ago, he no-heighted in the dreaded pole vault and eventually pulled out of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia.
About the time the track world was wondering what was wrong with Warner, he arrived at the decathlon’s unofficial world championship a month ago, the Hypo meet in Gotzis, Austria, and promptly ripped off a personal best 8,795-point performance, the best score in the world this year.
That performance moved him to the top spot in the world rankings and identified him as the gold-medal favourite in Tokyo. Given that it came while he was dealing with an ankle injury, it also typified his last year on the track.
“I surprised myself,” says Warner. “I had those problems and I was frustrated but it forced me to take it one event at a time. There was a lesson there.”
Which is a drum Gramantik has been pounding over the last year and a half.
“You have to be a little like the defensive backs who get beat,” he says. “You have to forget about that play and get on to the next. It’s that simple.
“Over-coaching is a problem in our sport sometimes. The reality is the more you say, the more you’re running the risk of saying something stupid.”
Warner and Gramantik weren’t exactly strangers to each other prior to the decathlete’s decision to relocate to the coach’s base in Calgary. They’d worked together at training camps in Santa Barbara, Calif., with Rio gold medallist Ashton Eaton and his coach Harry Marra. Gramantik, who began coaching 44 years ago in his native Romania — he really is from the Transylvania part of the country — had also worked with Canadian decathletes Michael Smith and Jessica Zelinka.
Still, Warner represented a different challenge to the old coach. He wasn’t hired to reinvent the decathlete but rather hired to deliver an Olympic gold. The performance in Austria suggests they’re on the right track, but there’s still a lot of runway left on the way to Tokyo.
“We had a connection, but I was surprised (when Warner approached him) because moving is difficult,” says Gramantik. “Obviously it’s an incredible opportunity for me to work for an athlete of this calibre at this stage of my career. The most important thing is to stabilize the performance, to erase the hiccups.”
Which is now Gramantik’s job.
“It’s a complicated decision,” says Warner. “A lot of thought went into the process. There were some relationship problems with some of the coaches. There were some events problems with the pole vault and discus.
“I just felt it was time to grow up and take control of my career. Once I made the decision, Les was the logical choice.”
As mentioned, gold is the end game for Warner and Gramantik, but surpassing the 9,000-point mark in sport’s most demanding event is also on their radar. To date, just two men have recorded 9,000 points or better. Eaton, who retired after Rio as the great decathlete in history, did it twice including the world record of 9,045. Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic was the first to do in 2001.
“I think it’s the ultimate goal for everyone in our sport,” says Warner, before adding. “The cool thing about my event is there’s no such thing as mastering the decathlon. There will never be a perfect decathlon, which is what makes it so difficult. But I want to be the best I can be. That’s my focus.”
It’s a simple goal.
His coach likes that.