With gold all but secured after a stellar second day for France’s Kevin Mayer, who won the pole vault and javelin, only nine points separated Pierce LePage and Zachary Ziemek, in second and third, heading into the final dreaded 1500. The Canadian and American stayed shoulder to shoulder until the final 100, when Ziemek ran out of gas and LePage ran ahead.
With the dominant Olympic champion Canada’s Damian Warner unable to compete after a hamstring injury last night, the decathlon gold was up for grabs on day two. The sixth event was the 110 hurdles, which began at Hayward Field on Sunday Morning.
LePage ran the fastest time in the hurdles with a personal best 13.78 seconds. NCAA champion Ayden Owens-Delerme of Puerto Rico, who entered the second as the points leader, ran a 13.88.
Ziemek, United States, spoke yesterday about the hard work he and his coach put in for the hurdles. The work paid off. Ziemek ran a personal best 14.47, a time fast enough to keep him in the bronze position.
In the discus, Czech Republic’s Jiří Sýkora had a monster final throw of 54.39 meters, enough to win him the event.
LePage’s first throw was a personal best of 53.26. The Canadian’s performance in discus was enough to move him to the top of the leaderboard with 6,427 points.
There was a duel in the pole vault between Ziemek and the french olympic silver medalist Kevin Mayer. Both men cleared a season’s best 5.40. Sýkora had to retire from the event with a left hand injury, after his pole snapped trying to clear 4.70. He cleared 4.60 and continued the competition.
After the morning events concluded, LePage sat atop the leaderboard with 7,337 points. Ziemek was in second only 81 points, behind the Canadian leader. After a big pole vault session, Mayer moved up to third with 7251 points. With only two events remaining, the desired gold medal was still up for grabs.
Zeimek threw another personal best in 62.18 in the javelin. Mayer threw 70.31, finishing first in the javelin and separating himself at the top of the leaderboard by 107 points, essentially just finishing the event would secure him gold.
Mayer’s gold performance totaled a season’s best 8,816 total points. LePage’s second place finish was a personal best of 8,701. Zeimek, who had four season’s best and two personal bests, finished with a personal best total of 8,676.
