Damian Warner’s attempt to win his first world championship title won’t be happening in Tokyo.
The 2021 Olympic champion decathlete from Canada is withdrawing from the competition with an Achilles injury. The competition is scheduled for Saturday morning in Tokyo.
In an Instagram post, the London, Ont., resident said while it wasn’t torn, and MRI did reveal swelling and fluid in the tendon.
“I’m devastated, especially because I had been feeling so strong leading into this trip and was really looking forward to once again representing Canada on the world stage,” Warner said in the post.
Warner has won two silver medals in eight world championships, including at the most recent worlds held two years ago in Budapest.
The 35-year-old was eager to return to competition inside Japan’s National Stadium, the same venue where he broke the Olympic record to win decathlon gold four years ago. Warner arrived in Tokyo two weeks ago and had been training and preparing in Gifu, Japan, before making his way to Tokyo for the start of the event.
He became the fourth man ever to break the 9,000 point barrier to become Olympic champion inside a mostly empty stadium in the midst of the pandemic.
This is now back-to-back summers of disappointment for Warner, who at last year’s Olympics in Paris fell out of contention and withdrew after failing to clear the bar in the pole vault.
WATCH | CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux explains Warner’s latest injury:
Damian Warner will not compete in the decathlon at the World Athletics Championships
CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux explains the latest news on the Canadian decathlete who won gold in Tokyo at the 202 Olympic Games.
“I feel like one of the important things about being a track athlete is having a short-term memory,” Warner told CBC Sports earlier this year. “When you have failures or things don’t go your way, you have to be able to stew in that moment and just kind of be upset at yourself and kind of draw as much as you can from that performance to be better.”
Warner returned to action this past May, finishing sixth at the Hypo Meeting in Austria , an event he’s won eight times.
While Warner has withdrawn from the event, reigning champion Canadian Pierce LePage is set to compete in the two-day, 10 event decathlon.
WATCH | Trackside recaps Day 7 of the World Athletic Championships:
World Athletics Championships day 7 reaction; Donovan Bailey reacts to the 200m final
Hosts Perdita Felicien and Devin Heroux break down all the action from day 7 of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, including the 200m final and the wild 400m men’s hurdles finals.
LePage won gold at the 2023 world championships, but has been plagued by injury for more than a year and had to withdraw from the Paris Olympics.
The conclusion of the decathlon comes Sunday evening inside Japan’s National Stadium.
AloJapan.com