Damian Warner (right) in the heptathlon 60m at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018 (© AFP / Getty Images)
Anything you can do, I can do better. The modest Kevin Mayer would never think or say that, of course, but if his feet could talk, that’s probably what they’d say to Damian Warner after the first event of the heptathlon.
Warner, the 2015 world silver medallist, was drawn in the first 60m heat and powered his way to a 6.74 victory, taking one hundredth off his lifetime best.
World decathlon champion Mayer, drawn in the next heat, took an even bigger chunk off his PB. His winning time, 6.85, was slower than Warner’s, but in a competition where athletes aim to improve as much as they can in each discipline, his 0.10 improvement translates to a significant points buffer.
Behind Warner and Mayer, USA’s Zach Ziemek was the next fastest with 6.89, followed by Austria’s Dominik Distelberger (6.93), Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov (6.95) and Eelco Sintnicolaas of the Netherlands (6.96).
There were no real surprises in the first discipline, but the next event – the long jump – could bring with it a bit more drama.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
