World Athletics Championships 2023: Pierce LePage wins historic decathlon gold on a glorious night for Canada
LePage became the first Canadian to win the decathlon at the World Championships rounding out a superb night for the North Americans who won four medals on the penultimate day in Budapest. Marco Arop clinched 800m gold.
Athletics
Pierce LePage spearheaded a glorious night for Canadian track and field claiming his nation's first decathlon gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday (26 August) with a score of 8,909.
The 27-year-old LePage shared the podium with compatriot and Olympic champion Damian Warner in second place while Marco Arop won the men’s 800 metres gold medal in a time of 1:44.24
About 45 minutes after Arop's thrilling performance, Sarah Mitton added silver in the women’s shot put with a heave of 20.08m.
But it was LePage who wrote himself in the history books, edging Warner (8,804) into second place following superb second-day performances. He upgraded the silver he took at last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Lindon Victor of Grenada produced a late charge, winning the bronze medal with a total of 8,756.
Little separated the top three contenders going into the final two events - the javelin throw and 1,500m - with LePage leading Germany's Leo Neugebauer and Warner by just over 200 points.
And LePage kept his cool, running a season's best of 4:39.88 in the 1,500m with his combined total launching him into sixth place on the all-time list.
"I’ve been competing with Damian for a long time. We’ve been in so many decathlons. We’ve won medals together. To share the podium with him is so special, especially winning my first World Championship gold,” LePage told Athletics Canada.
After the first day of the competition - which consists of the 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400m - the Canadian was in second place on 4,610, with Warner third (4,578). Neugebauer held the lead going into the second day of action on 4,640 thanks to personal bests in the long jump (8.00m) and the shot put (17.04m).
But LePage knocked Neugebauer off his perch in the first event of the second day clocking 13.77 seconds in the 110m hurdles with Warner moving into second place with a time of 13.67s.
Warner’s promotion was short-lived with Neugebauer swopping places with the Canadian after the pole vault. LePage consolidated his lead at the top of the pile scaling 5.20 metres which was the second-best jump during the round.
And the rest was history.