Olympics-Athletics-Norway's Rooth secures shock decathlon win

By Lori Ewing

PARIS (Reuters) -Norway's Markus Rooth captured a shock gold medal in the men's decathlon at the Olympics on Saturday after defending champion Damian Warner's title defence ended when he failed to clear a height in the pole vault.

The 22-year-old Rooth, in seventh place after day one, amassed 8,796 points for Norway's first Olympic decathlon gold since 1920, Germany's Leo Neugebauer won the silver with 8,748 and Lindon Victor of Grenada captured the bronze on 8,711.

"I just won gold, I did not expect this," Rooth told reporters after by far the biggest victory of his career. "I woke up this morning feeling great after an amazing first day. I just kept adding on to that."

Rooth took the lead with a terrific javelin throw -- the penultimate event of the competition -- before beating Neugebauer to the 1,500 metres finish line by about five seconds to clinch victory.

Rooth's teammate Sander Skotheim suffered the same fate as Warner, sitting in third place before missing all three of his pole vault attempts. But while Warner withdrew from the competition, Skotheim completed the final two events and paced Rooth through the 1,500m.

"I'm so lucky that I had my friend to run with me," said Rooth. "We tried to get a steady pace. I was exhausted. It's mentally hard. I just ran as hard as I could. It was great."

Skotheim finished 18th.

Canadian Warner, 34, was in the hunt for his third medal in what was likely his final Olympic appearance before his calamitous pole vault. He failed all three attempts at 4.60 metres after passing at four lower heights.

"Understandably, Damian and his team are devastated," the Canadian Olympic Committee said.

Twice Olympic and world decathlon champion Ashton Eaton of the United States, in Paris to watch the athletics, posted about Warner and Skotheim's struggles.

"Decathlon. My heart," Eaton wrote on X.

The absence of the two medal contenders seemed to clear the way to victory for Neugebauer, who has the world's leading score this year.

But Rooth, last year's European Under-23 champion, was solid throughout the second day to climb quietly up the standings.

"This moment is just insane," said Neugebauer, who blew kisses to the crowd after the final scores were posted. "I never expected anything like this. Just being able to compete here in this atmosphere is amazing."

The Olympic decathlon was also missing world record-holder Kevin Mayer of France and world champion Pierce LePage of Canada who both withdrew due to injuries.

(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris and Ed Osmond)