Damian Warner’s hopes of repeating as Olympic decathlon champion are over.
The 34-year-old from London, Ont., knocked the bar down on all three attempts in the pole vault to fall out of medal contention.
Warner was sitting in second with 6,428 points, 72 behind Germany’s Leo Neugebauer, after seven events.
After missing on his vault attempts, he dropped to 17th with two events to go.
Warner was looking to defend his Olympic title from the Tokyo Games in 2021.
He had set an Olympic record with 9,018 points.
Warner was looking to join American Bob Mathias (1948, 1952), Great Britain’s Daley Thompson (1980, 1984) and American Ashton Eaton (2012, 2016) as the only two-time Olympic gold medallists in the men’s decathlon.
Norway’s Skotheim Sander also failed to register a successful vault after entering the event in third place.
The 34-year-old Warner briefly led after a solid hurdles race and was second with 6,428, while 22-year-old Norwegian Sander Skotheim was third (6,326).
Warner, who became the oldest Olympic decathlon gold medallist three years ago in Tokyo, climbed from fourth to first in the 110-metres hurdles to kick off day two, with a time of 13.62, while Neugebauer dropped to third, with only 25 points separating the top three.
WATCH | Warner claims victory in 110m hurdles:
Reigning Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner of London, Ont., finishes first in the men’s 110-hurdles with a time of 13.62.
But the 24-year-old German reclaimed the lead with a throw of 53.33 metres in the discus, one of his strongest events, while Warner hurled it 48.68 metres.
Grenada’s Lindon Victor let fly a 53.91m toss, the best discus throw by a decathlete in Olympic history.
The field is missing France’s world record-holder Kevin Mayer and reigning world champion Pierce LePage, who both withdrew due to injuries.