Canadian Olympic and World High Jump Champion Derek Drouin to Make Decathlon Debut

By Adam Kopet, DyeStat Editor

Derek Drouin is the defending Olympic and World high jump champion for Canada. On Friday and Saturday, he will be taking part in his first decathlon at the Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational in Santa Barbara, California.

In recent years, we have seen athletes move away from the multi-events in favor of single events that garner more attention. Dafne Schippers, the Dutch sprinter, got her start as a heptathlete and only moved to the sprints full time in 2016.

As was previously reported, Drouin has long had a relationship with the multi-events, having been recruited to Indiana for just that purpose. Even while training specifically for the high jump, Drouin often incorporated training modalities for other events.

His reasons for doing so were both mental and physical. Despite winning gold in Rio last year, Drouin finished the year with a stress fracture in his back, something he attributes to the more high jump specific training he performed last year.

Drouin has goals to win the Commonwealth Championships decathlon in 2018. This weekend's competition is the first step toward doing so.

One event to still pay close attention to Friday is the high jump. The world decathlon best for the high jump is 7-5.25 (2.27m). For someone who has cleared 7-10 (2.40m), that mark could fall. However, for it to be counted in the record books, Drouin must finish all 10 events and earn a score of at least 7,000 points.

The 2017 Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational gets underway at noon PDT.