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.
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"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 repair a herniated disc.
"I'm the world champion. I want to defend my title," LePage said in an interview with The Canadian Press in October. "I'm sure Damian feels similar thoughts on not wanting to stop [in Paris].
"No one likes to not finish decathlon. That is definitely [the] drive to doing it again and kind of redeem ourselves, I suppose."
Götzis offers a perfect setting for the Canadians to get off on the right foot as they make their way toward the world championships in Tokyo in September. They couldn't have picked a more familiar or comfortable place to start that journey.
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Warner has won more decathlon titles in Götzis (eight) than any other person in the event's half-century history.
"I've just had an amazing time every single time that I've gone [to Götzis], and it's one of those things where I'm going to do that event every single year that I can, for the rest of my career," Warner said.
"It's the 50th anniversary, so I think it's going to be a really special one this year."
Warner will be looking for his record-extending ninth title at the Hypo Meeting and enters as the reigning champion.
Of course, that 2024 title was won without LePage in attendance.
The Whitby, Ont., native halted Warner's streak of seven consecutive Hypo Meeting titles in 2023. That win in Götzis was the first international title of LePage's career and a sign of things to come, as he won world championship gold in Budapest a few months later.
Warner – who is a four-time medallist at worlds but has yet to win gold – took silver in Budapest, as he did at that year's Hypo Meeting.
Iron sharpens iron
The decathlon is an individual competition, and the two men don't train together – but there's at least one way that LePage has helped Warner. He said LePage's rise from newcomer to world-class decathlete motivated the veteran to step his own game up.
"I would say he's a different competitor than all the rest, because as a decathlete, you want to be the best in the world. But...to be the best in the world, you have to be the best in your own country," Warner said. "For Pierce to come along at the time that he did, I think was really good for me.
"As an athlete, you're like, 'OK, if I want to continue to be the best, then I'm going to have to try to find ways to get better. So he's one of those guys that pushed me in a different way than maybe some of the other competitors in the world."
WATCH | Warner builds the ultimate Canadian decathlete:
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Damian Warner selects his all-time list of past and present Canadian track and field stars to build the ultimate decathlete.
As for those other competitors, few come as tough as Germany's Leo Neugebauer. The 24-year-old Olympic silver medallist is making his Hypo Meeting debut and should provide a stiff challenge for both Warner and LePage.
The event begins on Saturday with the 100 metres, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400m. Sunday will see the athletes compete in the 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and finish with the 1,500m.
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