PARIS: Norway’s Markus Rooth captured a shock gold medal in the men’s decathlon at the Olympics on Saturday after defending champion Damian Warner’s title defence ended when he failed to clear a height in the pole vault.
Rooth amassed 8,796 points, Germany’s Leo Neugebauer won the silver with 8,748 and Lindon Victor of Grenada captured the bronze on 8,711.
The 22-year-old Rooth, seventh after day one, took the lead with a terrific javelin throw before beating Neugebauer to the 1,500m finish line by about five seconds to seal by far the biggest victory of his career.
Canadian Warner, 34, was lying second heading into the pole vault, the eighth of the decathlon’s 10 events, but fouled on his three attempts at 4.60m.
Norway’s Sander Skotheim, in third place, suffered the same fate, failing three times to clear 4.50m.