Warner seeks even higher peaks after superb decathlon
Damian Warner can do better.
That is not a critique of how he performed Wednesday and Thursday at the Pan American Games. Warner won a gold medal, in the best decathlon he — or any Canadian — has ever completed.
It is, instead, an acknowledgment of how far he has come in three years.
He placed fifth at the 2012 Olympics, as a 22-year-old mostly unaccounted for on the world stage. He is now a medal threat in every meet he enters. On a team that has stolen the Pan Am spotlight, Warner is its widely talented star.
And in Toronto, he showed something else: an ability to dominate and nitpick in perfect tandem.
“I certainly believe I’m capable of greater things. I just can’t wait to get back to work and get out there and try to prove it,” Warner said Friday morning, roughly 12 hours after clinching gold. His 8,659 total points broke the Pan Am record of 8,373, and the former Canadian mark of 8,626.
“There were some events that didn’t go very well,” he continued, listing his performances in pole vault, high jump and javelin, where he placed between fourth to sixth overall.
“That’s what makes you look forward to the next decathlon. It’s really true that there’s no such thing as a perfect decathlon.”
But it is possible to come very close.
On the track and infield at York University, Warner set personal bests in four of 10 events: the 100m dash, long jump, discus throw and the 1,500m run, in that sequence.
He broke away from the pack halfway through the 1,500m race, turning the decathlon’s last event into an early victory lap.
There is also the matter of the Canadian record, held by two-time Commonwealth Games champion Michael Smith since 1996. It stood until Thursday night.
“For the last couple years, I thought I had the potential to get that record,” said Warner, who very nearly broke it before coming to Toronto. He opened his season in late May at the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis, Austria, and scored 8,512 points despite faulting on all of his attempts in the shot put.
“My uncle put it best: (he) said that, ‘It’s meant to happen here in Canada, on home soil, in front of your family and friends, and in front of your mom.’ I’m just glad that was the case.”
He also did it in front of Smith: the former record holder has worked as a colour commentator for CBC since he retired in 1999. On Thursday, he had a prime vantage point for the end of an era, and the resounding start of another.
“It’s been several years coming, in my opinion. … With the type of speed that he possesses, it was inevitable that he had the potential to break the record,” Smith said. “It was kind of surreal, in a way, to be able to watch him do what I did for so many years.”
The turning point in Warner’s vault to stardom, Smith said, came a year after the London Olympics, at the 2013 world championships in Moscow. It was there that he won his first major international medal: a bronze, with 8,512 total points.
Warner has always been fast, but he has developed a certain measure of “maturity” over the last few years, Smith added: the ability to maintain energy and effort over the course of all 10 events.
“This specific decathlon here, he had a couple events that didn’t go so well, but he kept his composure,” Smith said. “You just put it behind you and carry on. That was really impressive, how he did that here.”
Warner’s medal was Canada’s 15th in athletics at the Pan Ams, just over halfway through the competition. The team has promised a major showing in the coming year,
There were some events that didn’t go very well
starting here and moving into next month’s world championships in Beijing.
From there, 2015 will tick into 2016, and the Olympics in Rio. Warner will push for a medal, at the bare minimum — a target Smith said is “very, very realistic,” even against hefty competition.
And 2012 Olympic silver medallist Trey Hardee and 2013 worlds runner-up Michael Schrader will likely be there. The heavy favourite is the U.S.’s Ashton Eaton. He won both of those events, and owns the current world record: 9,039 points.
Challenging them may require incremental improvements in decathlon’s technical events: pole vault, javelin and others. It is the aspect Warner struggled with — in a very relative sense — in Toronto.
But now, he is Canada’s best, and can set his sights on something more.
“As a decathlete, you always have the 9,000-point barrier — it was kind of the magic of the four-minute mile,” Smith said. “Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic set it (in 2001). Now, Ashton Eaton has set it. On paper, Damian Warner definitely has the potential to be the third man to do that in history.”