Ashton Eaton wins 2nd decathlon gold, Damian Warner earns bronze
American defends his gold medal
By Benjamin Blum, CBC Sports
Canada's Damian Warner accomplished something no Canadian has done since 1988 by winning bronze in the decathlon at the Rio Olympics.
However, his feat was dwarfed by Ashton Eaton's historic gold-medal defence in the event.
Damian Warner and Ashton Eaton. The other Olympic bromance. <a href="https://t.co/FRhMaOgBtH">https://t.co/FRhMaOgBtH</a>
—@CBCOlympicsEaton joined fellow American Bob Mathias and Brit Daley Thompson as the only men to win consecutive decathlon gold medals. Warner's bronze is Canada's second-ever decathlon medal, and the first since Dave Steen's third-place finish at the Seoul Olympics.
Warner's journey from outside shot at the 2012 Olympics to the podium on Thursday is an incredible achievement. It just happened to take place during Eaton's dominant reign.
"I am proud of myself. I feel like the luckiest athlete in the world," Warner told The Canadian Press. "I would not be here without my coaches, family and friends. They made me who I am, an Olympic bronze medallist."
"I came here with mindset of gold, but there are a lot of tough competitors out there in decathlon," he said.
The London, Ont., native finished the 10-discipline competition with 8,666 points. Eaton finished with 8,893 points, while France's Kevin Mayer took silver with 8,834 points.
The decathlon is known as the ultimate all-around test, 10 events spanning the range of track and field disciplines spanning two long days. The winner is touted as "the world's greatest athlete."
Warner arrived at the London Olympics four years ago with a double-digit world ranking, but wound up finishing a surprise fifth.
Since then the field has gotten much tougher, but he won bronze at the 2013 world championships and then silver at last summer's world championships in Beijing as part of Canada's historic eight-medal performance.
Warner sat in third place after Day 1, which included a solid 100 metres and high jump. But he struggled in the shot put and 400 metres.
The 26-year-old picked up a score of 63.19 metres in the javelin throw on Day 2 — the fifth best in his group — for 786 points.
Warner had the best time in the 110-metre hurdles, finishing in 13.58 seconds. In the discus, he had a throw of 44.93 metres on his third attempt.
In the pole vault, Warner was fifth in his group at 4.7 metres.
Eaton's Canadian wife, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, won bronze in the heptathlon Saturday, for Canada's first track and field medal of the Games.
With files from The Canadian Press