Warner won’t let bug get him down
Decathlete fourth at halfway point
LONDON It was 48 hours Damian Warner should have spent taking care of his body and mind ahead of his gold-medal chase.
Instead, he was curled up in his hotel bed, quarantined for two days as he fought off the ravages of a stomach virus that has swept through the Canadian team’s hotel.
Now, barely two days since his quarantine ended, the reigning world silver medallist is remarkably within striking distance of a medal in the decathlon at the world track and field championships, sitting fourth after Day 1.
“I have a good team around me, so they try to reaffirm that everything’s going to be OK and I can work through it,” Warner said.
“But it’s tough. You work the whole season to come to this competition and I’m healthy and we did an awesome job leading up, and something like a bug that’s going around the hotel that throws you off … you can’t really prepare for that kind of stuff. That was really tough to deal with.”
Warner’s illness comes amid a string of horrible luck for Canada in London. It began when sprint star Andre De Grasse and Olympic high jump champion Derek Drouin withdrew with injuries, and continued with nine Canadian athletes and coaches falling ill.
Warner finished Day 1 with 4,347 points, just 14 points behind thirdplace Rico Freimuth of Germany.
Meanwhile, Melissa Bishop clinched her spot in Sunday’s 800-metre final after finishing second in her semifinal. And Crystal Emmanuel of Toronto raced to seventh in Canada’s first appearance in a women’s world 200-metre final in 34 years, posting a time of 22.60 seconds.
A night after almost falling in her 800 heat, Bishop ran a smart, safe race. The 29-year-old native of Eganville, Ont., ran 1:59.56 for the sixth fastest time on the night. South African Caster Semenya clocked the fastest time of 1:58.90.
Warner, a 27-year-old from London, Ont., woke up three days ago with his stomach tied in knots.
“I went to the track and did a workout, and was feeling warm and dizzy and very unco-ordinated,” Warner said.
He returned to his room for a nap and woke up with full-blown viral gastroenteritis. Thursday was his first day back on the track.
“It was a little bit rough when I came out to do my pre-meet shakeout (Thursday). I felt terrible,” Warner said. “Still wasn’t over it fully (Friday). I’m hoping with some sleep I can come back and feel like a brand new Damian.”
France’s Kevin Mayer led at the decathlon’s halfway point with 4,478 points, followed by Kai Kazmirek of Germany (4,421). Day 2 has the 110-metre hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the 1,500 metres.
Public Health England reported Thursday that 40 athletes, all from the same central London hotel where Canada is housed, are ill.
Canada has been hard hit. Eric Gillis dropped out of the marathon around the 30-kilometre mark, three days after being ill. Sprinter Aaron Brown was quarantined for a stomach bug.