CANADIAN RECORD
Damian Warner the new king
Damian Warner set a Canadian record in the decathlon on Thursday, while Canada set a national record for gold medals won at the Pan American Games.
The 25- year- old Warner from London, Ont., won the decathlon in the 13th day of competition at the Pan American Games — in the process breaking Michael Smith’s 19- year- old Canadian record.
Warner scored 8,659 points. Smith’s mark was 8,626. He needed to run four minutes 29 seconds in the decathlon’s final event, the 1,500 metres, to break the record, and ran 4: 24.73.
“When I made my decision to come here to compete in front of the home crowd I didn’t expect it to be this good,” said Warner. “I certainly had a great time and I just want to thank the fans that came out for all their support over the last two days.
“It’s been amazing. I’m glad I got to experience this. It will give me a great boost going into Beijing ( up coming World Championships).”
Warner took a healthy lead into the 1,500 — No. 10 of 10 events held over the two- day decathlon, recording personal bests in the 100 metres, long jump and discus.
Earlier, water- skier Whitney McClintock took first place in the women’s slalom event — her second top finish of these Games — to give Canada 65 gold medals in total up to that point. The previous record of 64 was set in Winnipeg in 1999.
“This is great, I’m a happy girl,” McClintock said. “I’ve got the two ( medals) I came for already. The rest are a bonus.”
McClintock, who won gold Wednesday in the overall competition, finished first in the six- skier slalom field to kick off a six- medal Thursday for Canadian waterskiers. Ryan Dodd capped the effort with a gold medal in the men’s jump competition on a warm, sunny afternoon on the waterfront.
McClintock, from Cambridge, Ont., later added silver medals in the tricks and jump finals and her brother Jason won silver in the men’s slalom.
After McClintock’s gold, Canada kept adding medals to bring its total up to 69 gold, 62 silver and 56 bronze by the end of competition Thursday evening.
The United States led the medal count with 83 gold, 69 silver and 71 bronze.
In team sports Thursday night, Canada used a balanced attack to defeat Mexico 96- 76 and move within one win of a first ever medal in Pan American Games men’s basketball play.
Brady Heslip, who scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter for Canada, led with 20 points. Orlando Mendez led Mexico with 24 points.
Canada ( 3- 0) came into the game having already secured a semifinal berth and knowing it had won Pool B barring a total collapse against the Mexicans ( 1- 2). Argentina’s earlier 80- 70 win over the Dominican Republic left both teams at 1- 2 and unable to catch Canada in the pool.
Adam Froese had the shootout winner as Canada’s men’s field hockey team earned a spot at the 2016 Olympics with a 5- 4 win over Brazil in the Pan Ams semifinal.
Froese scored the winner in the fifth round of the shootout, beating the Brazilian goalkeeper with a backhand shot.
Canada will now play Argentina in Saturday’s gold- medal game. The two teams have met in the men’s field hockey gold medal game in 10 straight Pan American games.