Canadian decathlete Warner captures gold at Gotzis meet

GOTZIS, AUSTRIA — Canadian decathlete Damian Warner became the third athlete to win five career titles at the prestigious Gotzis Hypo-Meeting as he rolled to victory Sunday.

The 29-year-old from London, Ont., held onto his lead from Saturday, finishing with

8,711 points.

Warner finished 238 points ahead of Landon Victor, of Grenada. Maicel Uibo of Estonia was third.

Warner, who won silver at the 2015 world championships and bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics, fell short of his Canadian record of 8,795 points he set at the same event last year, considered an unofficial world championships for multi-events.

Warner opened Sunday by finishing first in the 110 metre hurdles in a season-best time of 13.64 seconds.

He placed fifth in the discus, 22nd in the pole vault, fifth in the javelin and 12th in the

1,500 metres.

The Canadian also set season bests in the pole vault (4.60 metres) and javelin (63.67 metres).

Warner is coming off a disappointing season last summer. After his Canadian record at Gotzis, he withdrew from the Commonwealth Games decathlon after recording no height in pole vault.

He also had a rough world championships in 2017 in Beijing, finishing fifth after being quarantined for two days with the norovirus that swept through the Canadian team.

Warner switched coaches this season, leaving Calgary and longtime multi-events coach

Les Gramantik to move back to his hometown of London to train with his high school coach

Gar Leyshon.