BEIJING — A record for Damian Warner. Redemption for Canada's men's 4×100-metre relay team. A breakout performance by Melissa Bishop.
Canada captured three more medals on a thrilling night at the world track and field championships Saturday, and now boasts an all-time best total of seven with one day still to go.
"It's a feeling of pride," Bishop said. "We have a really great group of athletes in Canada right now and we're working really hard to put ourselves on the map, and I'm really happy to be part of that medal count."
Canada's relay squad — Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney, Andre De Grasse and Justyn Warner — was on the right side of a disqualification for once, earning bronze after the U.S. was disqualified.
The dramatic bronze brought the curtain down on a night that saw Damian Warner break his Canadian record in the decathlon en route to silver, and Bishop race to silver in the 800 in Canada's best-ever result in the event.
The relay result was redemption for the Canadians, who were denied a gold medal at last month's Pan Am Games for a disqualification. They were also DQ'ed at the IAAF World Relays, last summer's Commonwealth Games, and the 2012 London Olympics, costing the team a bronze medal.
The Canadians lingered on the track watching the scoreboard, knowing all too well how results can change.
"It was nice," Justyn Warner said. "Peter (Eriksson, Canada's head coach) told us to stay down on the track, there might have been a DQ. We're happy, we're blessed to come away with a bronze for our country, make our country proud."
The result gives De Grasse, a rising sprint superstar from Markham, Ont., two medals at his first world championships. The 20-year-old also took bronze in the men's 100 metres.
"I had an amazing season," said De Grasse, who ran the second leg. "I was talking to my teammate Akeem (Haynes), he said 'One more run, one more run, just give it all you've got.' To end it like that, my last run, I'm just happy we came out of here with a bronze."
Usain Bolt and the mighty Jamaicans thundered to gold in 37.36 seconds.
Moments earlier, Damian Warner, a 25-year-old from London, Ont., had scored 8,695 to break his own Canadian record of 8,659 he'd set just a month earlier in winning gold at the Pan American Games.
Heading into the 1,500, the decathlon's final event, Warner set a target of 8,700 points.
"I was a little baby, didn't run it as hard as I should have," he said afterward. "Now I'm seeing that I was five points off and it's hurting me a little bit.
"There was just something about it that my legs just didn't want to co-operate," he added. "But I broke the Canadian record once again and I can't really complain."
American Ashton Eaton -- husband of Canada's heptathlon silver medallist Brianne Theisen-Eaton -- won the gold in spectacular fashion, scoring 9,045 points to break his own world record.
Germany's Rico Freimuth took bronze with 8,561 points.
Warner's coach Gar Leyshon praised the Canadian's performance coming off the Pan Am Games, where he shattered Mike Smith's 19-year-old Canadian record. Decathlons are like marathons -- athletes only compete in one or two a year, and never close together.
"If you look at the other people, they did not compete five weeks ago at the Pan Ams, and the people who did looked like crap, none of them had the kind of performance he had," Leyshon said. "To PB under these circumstances I thought was incredible."
Warner, who was the world bronze medallist in 2013, said he'll soak up the experience of watching Eaton's world-record performance.
"I'm glad I was a part of it, I'm glad I got to see what it takes to break the world record because I believe I'm capable of doing that too," he said. "So as an athlete that motivates me."
Bishop won the 800 silver in one minute 58.12 seconds in a battle down the homestretch. The race capped a spectacular week for the 27-year-old from Eganville, Ont., and a remarkable turnaround after missing most of the winter with a series of setbacks.
"There was a lot of crying," Bishop said, of her rough early season. "I give credit to Dennis (Fairall, her coach) again, he's a very patient man and just such a wonderful coach.
"I'm going to get emotional now," she said, holding back tears. "It's just so special for the two of us because we came from a really low spot this January, and we worked really hard for this."
Bishop suffered a sports hernia in her pelvis during the winter that kept her out of training for several months. She then suffered a massive emotional setback when her cousin died in a car accident. She didn't open her season until the end of May.
Bishop peered at the scoreboard after the results were posted.
"I wanted to clarify with the board just to make sure that it was for real," she said. "I'm speechless. I'm just so happy."
She then ran to the front row of the stadium's stands, the Canadian flag flying behind her like a superhero's cape, to embrace her boyfriend.
In the semifinals two nights earlier, Bishop blazed to a time of 1:57.52, running a whopping two-second personal best, and breaking Diane Cummins' Canadian record that stood for 14 years.
Fairall came to the track Saturday night wearing the identical clothes he'd worn two nights earlier, a red Canada T-shirt and black shorts. He sat in the exact same spot.
"I'm kind of superstitious," the coach said.
Canada's previous best finish in the event at worlds was Cummins' fifth in 2001.
Marina Arzamasova of Belarus won the gold in 1:58.03, while Eunice Sum of Kenya took the bronze in 1:58.18.
Also Saturday, Canada's women's 4x100 relay team of Crystal Emmanuel of Pickering, Ont., Kim Hyacinthe of Terrebonne, Que., Isatu Fofanah of Edmonton and Khamica Bingham of Brampton, Ont., finished sixth in 43.05 seconds. They'd set a Canadian record of 42.60 in the heats earlier in the day.
Jamaica won gold, followed by the United States and Trinidad and Tobago.
Mohammed Ahmed of St. Catharines, Ont., placed 12th in the men's 5,000 metres marking Canada's best finish ever in the event at the worlds. The previous best was Carey Nelson's 15th-place finish in 1987.
Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C., was 12th in the men's 50-kilometre racewalk.
