Damian Warner captures record 7th title at Hypo Meeting decathlon

Canada's Damian Warner claimed a sixth-consecutive decathlon Hypo Meeting title on Sunday, extend his record-total to seven in Götzis, Austria.

The 32-year-old London, Ont., native finished with 8,797 points overall to edge Grenada's Lindon Victor by 30 points for the win.

Warner began Day 2 in second place, but a win in the 110-metre hurdles men's event – finishing in 13.48 seconds – put him into the lead at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meet.

A second-place finish in the discus throw and a fourth-place result in the pole vault helped maintain the Canadian's momentum.

The Canadian entered the final day of competition trailing Switzerland's Simon Ehammer by two points. The Swiss finished third with 8,377 points.

Warner is the reigning Olympic decathlon champion, having also won bronze in Rio 2016.

On Saturday, Warner placed first in the men's 100-metre with a time of 10.14 seconds. The time was 2-1000ths shy of his personal best and decathlon world best, set at the event in 2019 and equalled at Tokyo 2020.

Fellow Canadian Pierce LePage only made it through two events on Saturday before registering as a DNF (did not finish) in the overall standings

In March, Warner became a first-time world athletics indoor champion after beating Ehammer by 126 points in the seven-event heptathlon. 

Warner placed third in the men's 1,000 metres, the final event in Belgrade, Serbia, to overtake Ehammer for his first heptathlon title in three world indoor appearances, raising his national heptathlon record to 6,489 points.