Canada's LePage captures silver in world championship decathlon

EUGENE, Ore. — Canada's Pierce LePage captured silver in the decathlon at the world track and field championships on Sunday.

The 26-year-old from Whitby, Ont., scored a personal best 8,701 points.

World record-holder Kevin Mayer of France won gold with 8,816 points in a field missing Canada's Olympic champion Damian Warner.

American Zachery Ziemek collected the bronze (8,676).

LePage's medal was the fourth for Canada at the world championships.

LePage led for much of Day 2 after big personal bests in the 110-metre hurdles and discus, but dropped a place behind Mayer after the javelin, the decathlon's penultimate event.

The 1,500 metres became an intense battle between LePage and Ziemek for silver.

Warner had led the field through the first four events of Day 1, but his quest for a first world decathlon title ended with a hamstring injury in the 400 metres.

LePage has flirted with the podium numerous times, finishing fifth at both the Tokyo Olympics and 2019 world championships in Doha.

Earlier on Sunday, Moh Ahmed of St. Catharines, Ont., was fifth in the men's 5,000 metres, the event in which he won silver at the Tokyo Olympics.

And Olympic bronze medallist Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C., was sixth in the men's 35-kilometre race walk.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2022.