Warner, the Commonwealth Games champion, began the day in control of the men’s decathlon competition with his first day points total of 4,460 putting him on course to beat the Pan American Games record of 8,373 set by Cuba’s Leonel Suarez at Guadalajara 2011.

The day began in perfect fashion for the home favourite as he ran the fastest ever 110 metres hurdles in a decathlon competition with his time of 13.44sec giving him a huge 1,048 points to add to his overall total.

Solid performances in the three field events of the day, the discus, pole vault and javelin, opened up the prospect of breaking Mike Smith’s 19-year-old old Canadian record of 8,626 points with a strong time in the 1500m, in addition to breaking the Pan American Games mark.

He duly achieved both by leading from the front to win the final discipline of the decathlon by nine second in 4min24.73sec, securing the gold medal with a total of 8,659 points.

Warner had succeeded in delivering victory in front of an expectant home crowd, as just their young sprint star Andre De Grasse had done yesterday evening.

The newly crowned 100m champion was back in action today as he qualified for the men’s 200m final in 20.12sec.

It was Rasheed Dwyer who stole the show, however, breaking the 44-year-old Pan American Games record of 19.86, coming home in 19.80, becoming the fourth fastest Jamaican in history over the distance behind Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Warren Weir.

His performance was one of high points of a superb evening session, which also saw a new world leading mark this year in the women’s pole vault, with Rio 2007 Pan American Games champion Fabiana Murer of Brazil bidding to wrestle back the title from defending champion Yarisley Silva of Cuba.

Three consecutive failures by the Brazilian at 4.85 metres, though, saw Silva maintain her title and the Olympic silver medallist finished the competition in style by clearing the distance to surpass the existing world leading mark of 4.83 metres set by Greece’s Nikoléta Kyriakopoulou earlier this month at the International Association of Athletics Federations Diamond League meeting in Paris. 

The only other field event to take place was the men’s discus final, won by Jamaica's Fedrick Dacres after the 21-year-old's third round effort of 64.80m saw off the challenge of Brazil’s Ronald Juliao.

Back on the track - and in the absence of the Dominican Republic’s Olympic champion Felix Sanchez, who bowed out in the semi-finals - all eyes were on Puerto Rico’s Javier Culson in the men’s 400m hurdles.

The Olympic silver medallist looked on course to claim gold as he led from lane eight for the opening 350 metres of the race, only to be forced to settle for silver in 48.72 as the dreadlocked Jeffery Gibson of the Bahamas edged him to the line to take the title in a personal best time of 48.51.

Culson was pipped to gold in the hurdles his but fellow London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos, from Dominica, enjoyed better fortune in the closing stages of the men’s 400m final as his time of 44.56 was enough for him to see off the challenge of Trinidad and Tobago’s Machel Cedenio.

Cedenio was one of a number of reigning world junior champions to deliver superb performances on the night with America’s Kendall Baisden winning women’s 400m gold in 51.27.

Her 17-year-old team mate Kaylin Whitney, meanwhile, posted a time of 22.68 to qualify fastest for the women’s 200m final.

The pair where part of another positive night for the United States team on the track as Clayton Murphy outsprinted Colombia’s Rafith Rodriguez to win men’s 800m gold in 1:47.19.

Desiree Davila was beaten in a sprint finish in the women’s 10,000m final, however, with Mexico’s Brenda Flores taking gold in 32:41.33.

The CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Aquatics Centre and Field House was another venue where American enjoyed success as they secured both the men's and women's team sabre finals.

At Ontario Place West Channel, Nate Smith's and Adam Pickos' victories in the men's slalom and tricks water skiing finals were added to by Regina Jaquess' gold in the women's jump event.

There was also Canadian success on the water as Ryan Dodd claimed the men's jump title and Whitney McClintock won the slalom.

Canada's equestrian team booked their place in the Olympic showjumping competition at Rio de Janeiro next year after only accruing seven penalties to Argentina's eight to win gold, led by 68-year-old Ian Millar, competing in his 10th Pan American Games.

The opening night of karate saw double success for Brazil as Douglas Brose beat Venezuela's Jovanni Martinez 4-0 in the men's under 60 kilogram final.

Valeria Kumizaki was awarded the women's under 55kg gold by the judges after finishing level at 1-1 with Canada's Kate Campbell.

Related stories
July 2015: De Grasse delivers Canadian 100m glory while United States enjoy golden day at Toronto 2015
July 2015: Mexican pair fight back to win Toronto 2015 men's beach volleyball gold
July 2015: Brazil and US win in table tennis as Canada sparkle in athletics at Toronto 2015
July 2015: Canada overwhelm United States to claim first ever Pan American Games basketball title
July 2015: US throw away gold to gift Canada stunning Toronto 2015 baseball title