Warner's quest to defend Olympic decathlon title over

PARIS : Canadian Damian Warner's defence of his Olympic decathlon title came to a crashing halt on Saturday with a disastrous pole vault event.

The 34-year-old sat second behind Germany's Leo Neugebauer heading into the pole vault, which is the eighth of 10 events, but fouled on all three attempts at 4.60 metres, leaving him with zero points for that discipline.

Warner passed at four previous lower heights before his first attempt at 4.60.

Norwegian Sander Skotheim suffered the same fate after sitting in third ahead of the pole vault. The 22-year-old fouled at his three attempts at 4.50, earning zero points.

Neugebauer, who has the world's best decathlon score this season, remains on pace for gold after safely clearing 4.70m on his second attempt in the pole vault which is still going on.

The decathlon wraps up with the javelin and 1,500 metres on Saturday.