Olympics-Athletics-Warner's quest to defend Olympic decathlon title over

By Lori Ewing

PARIS (Reuters) -Germany's Leo Neugebauer appeared to have a clear path to the Olympic decathlon gold medal after Canadian Damian Warner's title defence came to a crashing halt in the pole vault on Saturday and fellow contender Sander Skotheim suffered the same fate.

The 34-year-old Warner was second behind Neugebauer heading into the pole vault, the eighth -- and trickiest -- of the decathlon's 10 events, but fouled on all three attempts at his opening height of 4.60 metres, leaving him with zero points for the discipline.

Neugebauer, who cleared 5.00 metres, leads with 7,410 points with just the javelin and 1,500 metres remaining, while Markus Rooth of Norway is second with 7,271 and Grenada's Lindon Victor is third (7,191).

Warner passed at four previous lower heights before his attempts at 4.60, and held his head in his hands after the bar fell on his final disastrous attempt in what will likely be his final Olympics.

Norwegian Skotheim, who was third ahead of the pole vault, missed at his three attempts at 4.50, earning zero points.

Two-times Olympic and world decathlon Ashton Eaton of the United States, who is in Paris to watch the athletics, posted about the calamitous turn of events for Warner and Skotheim, writing on X: "Decathlon. My heart."

Neugebauer was fifth at last year's world championships in Budapest but boasts the world's best score this season, set in winning his second consecutive NCAA title for the University of Texas.

Warner also won bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics and is a four-times world championship medallist, with two silvers and two bronzes.

While he is the oldest decathlete competing in Paris, and a decade or more older than many of his rivals, he has said he plans to compete at next year's world championships in Tokyo because the 2020 Olympics were deprived of fans due to COVID-19.

The Canadian was on pace for a world title in 2022 when he suffered a torn hamstring in the 400m.

(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Alison Williams and Clare Fallon)