Olympic decathlon champion wins again at the Hypo-Meeting in Austria with Anouk Vetter taking the heptathlon as Brits Holly Mills and Katarina Johnson-Thompson finish sixth and seventh

Damian Warner earned a record seventh decathlon victory at the annual combined events festival in Götzis on Sunday (May 29) as Anouk Vetter took the heptathlon in a Dutch record as British duo Holly Mills and Katarina Johnson-Thompson finished sixth and seventh.

Olympic champion Warner found himself chasing Simon Ehammer at the end of the first day after the Swiss athlete scored huge points in the long jump with a decathlon world best and an outright world leading mark of 8.45m.

But Warner went into the lead at the start of day two and the Canadian eventually ran out the winner with a world lead of 8797 as Lindon Victor of Grenada finished runner-up with 8447 and Ehammer third with 8377 followed by Germany’s Niklas Kaul and Kai Kazmirek in fourth and fifth.

Warner’s marks included 100m 10.14, long jump 7.93m, shot 114.92m, high jump 2.03m, 400m 47.92, 110m hurdles 13.48, discus 48.24, pole vault 4.90m, javelin 58.62m and 1500m 4:38.65. This was despite a weekend that saw Sunday afternoon hit by some wild weather, which included a hailstone shower.

In similar style Vetter moved into the lead on Sunday as she passed Adrianna Sulek of Poland. A meeting record of 59.81m for Vetter in the javelin gave her a big lead going into the 800m and she scored 6693.

Runner-up Sulek scored a 6429 PB with German Vanessa Grimm also producing the best performance of her life with 6323.

Vetter’s marks included 100m hurdles 13.28, high jump 1.74m, shot 14.88m, 200m 23.76, long jump 6.47m, javelin 59.81 and 800m 2:21.56.

Mills opened with a 13.41 for 100m hurdles then 1.77m high jump, 13.36m shot, 24.47 for 200m, 6.25m long jump, 39.07m javelin and 2:08.07 800m.

Johnson-Thompson, easing her way back to form after an injury-hit 2021, managed 13.80 for 100m hurdles, 1.77m high jump, 12.87 shot, 23.51 for 200m, 6.37m long jump, 40.78m javelin and 2:19.34 for 800m.

A number of British journalists went out to Götzis to watch the progress of the 2019 world champion and after the competition she said: “I’ve been in worse situations before. I’m walking away completely healthy. I don’t have to go into rehab now and worry about that. It’s disappointing but I am not panicking.”

Ahead of the defence of her world title in Eugene in July, she added: “I love being an underdog and I always root for the underdog. So it is good to have that label.”