Olympic champion Thiam 4th heptathlete to break 7,000 points

GOETZIS, Austria (AP) Canadian decathlete Damian Warner won the Hypo Meeting for a third time Sunday, while Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam became the fourth woman to break the 7,000-point mark in the women's heptathlon.

Warner, who also won the event in 2013 and last year, looked set for victory until a disappointing showing in the javelin saw his 113-point lead reduced to just 46 ahead of the concluding 1,500 meters.

However, the Olympic bronze medalist finished the run ahead of his main rival, Eelco Sintnicolaas, and claimed victory with 8,591 points, 52 clear of the Dutchman. Rico Freimuth of Germany was 226 points behind in third.

''It's a hard-fought medal. It means a lot to me to win it for a third time,'' said Warner, who will not compete in another international decathlon before the world championships in London in August.

''Based on what I did here in some events I am very confident going forward,'' he said.

In the heptathlon, Thiam finished on 7,013 points and joined American world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Russia's Larisa Turchinskaya and Sweden's Carolina Klueft as the only female athletes to have achieved the feat.

''Last year was incredible and I thought: `Maybe that's my best.' But I just tried to do even better today,'' said the 22-year-old Belgian, who won Olympic gold in Rio.

Carolin Schaefer of Germany finished second with 6,836 points, and Laura Ikauniece-Admidina of Latvia was 21 points further behind in third. Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who led the competition after the opening day, finished on a personal best of 6,691 but the Briton still dropped to fourth place.

The top six in the heptathlon all scored personal best results in sunny and warm conditions in the Austrian Alps.