(Eugene) A Canadian won a medal in the decathlon at the World Championships in athletics — but it wasn’t the reigning Olympic champion, Damian Warner.
Updated at 12:20 a.m.
Ontarian Pierce LePage won the silver medal on Sunday with a personal best 8,701 points.
LePage has come close to stepping onto the podium multiple times in his career. He finished fifth at the Tokyo Games as well as at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. Not this time.
“What’s been hard for me is that I’ve been so close in the past few years,” LePage said. I was always at the top of the standings, but then I fell towards the end and it was always very disappointing. To finally be at the top… to stay on the podium, that’s exceptional. »
Frenchman Kevin Mayer (8816 points) won the competition and was crowned world champion again. Silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics last summer, the Frenchman started the second day of activities in 4e square.
LePage, who was in second place heading into the final event — the 1,500m — managed to defend his position. He edged American Zachary Ziemek (8676 points) by 25 points.
“I had to choose if I tried to beat Kevin (Mayer for the gold) or if I stayed more conservative and ensured a medal,” admitted LePage.
The 26-year-old LePage collected Canada’s fourth and final medal at the 2022 World Championships in Athletics in Eugene.
Warner, favorite of the competition, was forced to withdraw on Saturday due to an injury during the 400 meters event. At the time of his retirement, the Canadian then occupied the first place in the competition.
Mohammed Ahmed wearing his hair at the finish line
A few meters from the finish line and a bronze medal, the Canadian Moh Ahmed was unable to keep pace and finished in 5e rank in the 5000m event.
Norwegian Jakob Ingerbrigtsen was crowned world champion with a time of 13 minutes and 9.24 seconds.
He was followed by Kenyan Jacob Krop and Ugandan Oscar Chelimo respectively.
Ahmed, vice-champion of the Tokyo Olympics, finished with a time of 13; 10.46. He was 26 hundredths behind Chelimo and one place on the podium.
The Canadian took the 6e echelon earlier at the World Athletics Championships in the 10,000m distance.
A new world record
The Swedish Armand Duplantis concluded the World Championships in Athletics in apotheosis by breaking the world record in the pole vault with a jump of 6.21 m in addition to the title won.
Already certain of being in gold, the Olympic champion improved his own record (6.20 in March in Belgrade) to 2e test. American Christopher Nilsen took silver, as at the Tokyo Games last summer, and Filipino Ernest John Obiena bronze, both with jumps of 5.94m.
At 22, “Mondo” Duplantis has just won the last title that was missing from his list, when he is already European champion (2018), Olympic champion (2021) and indoor world champion (2022).
He broke the pole vault world record for the fifth time on Sunday, the third in 2022.
Representing Sweden, the country of his mother, Duplantis was born and raised in the United States in Lafayette (Louisiana).
“Not bad,” he joked at the stadium microphone. You (the public) gave me good energy to help me pass the bar, it was magnificent, I love Eugene,” he said.
Athing Mu 800m champion
The American Athing Mu, reigning Olympic champion, was crowned world champion in the 800m, at the age of twenty, narrowly beating the Briton Keely Hodgkinson.
Mu, who is playing in her first Worlds, beat Hodgkinson by eight hundredths, winning in 1 min 56 s 30. Kenyan Mary Moraa took third place in 1 min 56 s 71.
She is the first American athlete to win world gold in the 800m.
The young half-founder has not bowed on the outdoor double lap since 2019.
On the last day of competition, Mu further embellishes the fruitful harvest of the United States at home, for the first World Athletics Championships on American soil in history, by offering them an eleventh gold medal, a 29e in total.
In addition to her individual Olympic title in the 800m, Mu is also the reigning Olympic champion in the women’s 4x400m with the USA relay.
Americans take gold in the 4 x 400m relay
In the 4x400m relay, the Americans of Sydney McLaughlin were crowned world champions ahead of Jamaica and Great Britain.
They offer Allyson Felix, aligned in the playoffs before putting an end to his exceptional career at 36, a record twentieth world medal. The United States, with McLaughlin as the last torchbearer, won in 3:17.79, nearly three seconds ahead of Jamaica (3:2074).
Mihambo keeps the gold
German Malaika Mihambo, reigning Olympic champion, has retained world gold in the long jump with a jump to 7.12 m.
Mihambo (28), crowned world champion for the first time in 2019 and also reigning European champion (2018), won ahead of the Nigerian Ese Brume (7.02 m) and the Brazilian Leticia Oro Melo (6 .89m).
It offers Germany a first title in these 2022 Worlds, a second medal in total, three weeks before the European Championships in Munich.
With Agence France-Presse