Decathlon champion Damian Warner broke the Olympic record en route to gold medal in Tokyo

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Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner was voted Canada’s best athlete of 2021 on Wednesday.

Warner, 32, collects the Lou Marsh Trophy after his record-setting performance at the Tokyo Games, where he led after all 10 events to become just the fourth person ever to break the vaunted 9,000-point mark. He is the first Canadian to win the Olympic decathlon.

The London, Ont., native was later named Canada’s flag-bearer for the closing ceremony.

Warner, who won bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio, set an Olympic record and a national record with 9,018 points in Tokyo.

Warner tied his decathlon world mark in the 100 metres in Tokyo and set Olympic decathlon records in the long jump and 110-metre hurdles. He cleared a personal best 4.90 metres in the pole vault.