Canadian Warner loses grip on elusive decathlon medal
GOLD COAST, Australia — Canadian Damian Warner’s bid to defend his decathlon title at the Commonwealth Games took a nose dive Tuesday when he failed to clear a height in the pole vault.
Warner missed three attempts at 4.50 metres, failing to score any points in the event. His personal best is 4.90 metres.
The 28-year-old from London, Ont., who now makes his home in Calgary, fell from first to sixth place. Fellow Canadian Pierce LePage (6,889 points) took over with a narrow lead over Grenada’s Lindor Victor (6,864). Australian Cedric Dubler was third (6,749).
LePage, from Whitby, Ont., placed second with a personal best 4.90 metres behind Dubler’s 5.00.
Warner had been on a roll in the first six events.
Warner started competition on Day 2 Tuesday with the best time in the 110-metre hurdles, clocking 13.89 seconds. He then placed fourth in the discus with a throw of 46.55 metres.
That left Warner with 6,297 points after seven of 10 events, ahead of Grenada’s Lindon Victor (6,074) and Canadian teammate Pierce LePage (6,009) after the first day
On Monday, Warner opened with his season-best 10.29 in the 100, threw a personal best 15:11 metres in the shot put, recorded 7.54 metres in the long jump and a season-best 2.04 metres in the high jump. He capped off the day by winning his 400 in 48.12 for a total of 4,509 points.
LePage was 129 points behind at the end of competition Monday.
The javelin and 1,500 metres follow the pole vault.
Warner is coming off a secondplace heptathlon showing at the world indoor championships in Birmingham, England, losing to France’s Kevin Mayer by just five points despite setting a Canadian indoor record of 6,343 points.
The Canadian has had his share of bad luck. He finished fifth at last year’s world track and field championships in London after being laid low by a stomach bug that swept through the Canadian team’s hotel.
Elsewhere, somebody didn’t check the right boxes, and it cost England cyclist Melissa Lowther the chance to compete at the Commonwealth Games
Lowther was ruled out of the road time trial hours before it began because of an administrative error. It meant Lowther wasn’t formally entered for the race. Team England lost an appeal to have Lowther included.
The blunder was hard for Lowther to take.
“While Team England has apologized, I’m still gutted not to have the opportunity to represent my country after all the hard miles I’ve put in,” said the 21-year-old Lowther, who will still be eligible to compete in Saturday’s road race.
“I can’t put into words how disappointed I am to have been missed off the start list due to an admin error.”
England’s chef de mission Sarah Winckless apologized to Lowther and the cycling coaches.
“Melissa has trained hard for and focused on this race and it should never be the case that an error on our part prevents an athlete showing what she can do,” Winckless said.
• The fastest man and woman at the Commonwealth Games admitted they’d had little sleep since winning their respective 100-metre titles on Monday night. Michelle-Lee Ahye, who won her first gold medal at a major international meet, was awaiting a call from the Trinidad & Tobago president, Paula-Mae Weekes.
Akani Simbine, who upset Jamaican Yohan Blake to win the men’s title, was still having a tough time believing his win, 12 hours later. So was his mother, who took the day off work in South Africa to watch on TV and who Simbine said had a “nextlevel smile.”