A Canadian star is born
To the winner goes the title: World’s Greatest Athlete.
When Bruce Jenner of the United States won the 1976 Olympic decathlon in Montreal, his face was plastered on billboards and cereal boxes.
So, for the Unheralded One — 22-year-old Damian Warner of London, Ont. — to finish fifth at the London Olympic decathlon meet, was startling. Warner was third after his first day of competition and fourth heading into the final event, the 1500-metre run.
“The big goal was just to make the Olympics, so to come here and put together my best score ever, you couldn’t ask for anything more,” Warner said.
World-record holder Ashton Eaton of the United States won the gold medal with a score of 8,869 over the 10 track and field events. Fellow American Trey Hardee was second with 8,671. Cuba’s Leonel Suarez took the bronze, even if Warner earned a moral victory by catching Suarez at the line to nip him for fourth place in the 1500-metre run.
Realistically, Warner didn’t think he could make up an 83-point gap, but he raced fearlessly and posted yet another personal best.
Considering Warner was 18th at the world decathlon championships in August 2011, his rise to a near podium finish here is nothing short of meteoric. A critical part of the improvement, Warner said, was realizing he had to stop being in awe of his competitors.
“We can almost say, a star is born,” said his coach Les Gramantik.
Now, Gramantik can be colourful around the fourth and fifth estate, but he may be on the mark with Warner, whose Olympic decathlon point total of 8,442 was the second highest in Canadian history, next to former world champ Mike Smith. Gramantik was tickled to be able to tell us that Warner’s total exceeded even Dave Steen’s bronze-medal winning point total of 1988 in Seoul, 8,328.
Gramantik was asked if he’d ever seen a decathlete nail six PBS in one competition. “Yeah, his name was Bruce Jenner; in 1976 he had nine personal bests and won the gold,” Gramantik said.
Warner is already aiming for a podium finish in 2016 and Gramantik hopes he might stick around for another two Olympics.
“The improvement is very impressive, he’s got superior speed abilities,” Gramantik said. “He’s a very intriguing guy because he has a good understanding of kinesthetics. There’s very little talking that needs to be done.”
Warner credits his coaches at Montcalm high school, Gar Leyshon and Dennis Nielson, for converting Warner from a basketball player to a de- cathlete.
What position did Warner play in basketball?
“All over the court,” he says, smiling. Warner’s hoops highlight was reaching the Ontario provincial high school championships.
Leyshon and Nielson started Warner out as a jumper: high jump and triple jump. (Warner was second in the high jump here), then added sprints and the field events. Warner has only been dabbling in decathlon for about three years and said he barely noticed the Summer Olympics on TV before 2008.
A business student at Fanshawe College in London, Warner took the year off to train. Warner needs to work on his pole vault (10th) and discus (10th), but Gramantik wants him to train for “development” not short-term performance. Elsewhere on Thursday: Before she stepped down to the mixed zone after her 800-metre semifinal, Jessica Smith of North Vancouver stopped atop the stairs to watch the end of the men’s 800-metres.
“How could you not?” Smith said. “You can’t come to the Olympics and not watch that. Especially another 800-metre runner. That’s incredible.”
Never let it be said the 22-year-old Smith didn’t have her eyes wide open, while experiencing her first Olympics, a far cry from the more familiar Harry Jerome meets in Burnaby.
“It’s nothing like this. I mean the crowd, when you’re at the line and taking those first few steps — you can’t get momentum like that,” Smith enthused. “And they cheer all the way to the end.”
Smith was not daunted by the speed in her heat, and ran fourth for much of the race, fading to seventh in her semifinal heat in a 2:01.90 time slightly off her personal best. Mariya Savinova of Russia won the heat in 1:58.57.
Another North Van resident, Liz Gleadle, finished 12th in women’s javelin with a throw of 58.78. Barbora Spotakova of Czech Republic won gold.
“It’s not what I wanted, not what I expected,” Gleadle said. “I wasn’t exactly as powerful as I was hoping to feel today.”