Damian Warner, Pierce LePage face off in sneak preview of showdown at world championships

One of the most anticipated showdowns of this summer's World Athletics Championships will get a dress rehearsal of sorts this weekend.

Decorated Canadian decathletes Damian Warner and Pierce LePage are in Götzis, Austria, for the annual Hypo Meeting combined events festival.

This picturesque town nestled in the shadow of the Austrian Alps hosts the biggest multi-event competition in the world, outside of the Olympic Games and world championships.

It's also one of only a handful of decathlons that Warner and LePage compete in every season. The scarcity of competition only multiplies the importance of the Hypo Meeting, especially considering how quickly both Canadians would like to put last season behind them.

Warner, 35, had his "worst nightmare come true" at last summer's Olympic Games. The four-time world championship medallist and defending Olympic champion withdrew midway through competition in Paris after triple-faulting in the pole vault.

"I've had some tough moments in my career, but [Paris 2024] probably ranks as one of the highest," Warner told CBC Sports in April. "You're never going to get those moments back.

#TheMoment Damian Warner broke down after pulling out of the Olympics

"But at the same time, there's a lot of things that you can learn from it and take away from it. So I want to kind of right the ship. I know that I'm better than that. And I've been trying to prove that in my training this year."

LePage, 29, had the most successful season of his career in 2023, becoming the first Canadian to win a world title in decathlon. But his 2024 season was completely derailed by a back injury that caused him to miss that year's Hypo Meeting and the Paris Olympics.

He's back in action after surgery in August to