Grigorieva's poles stolen!

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/co ... 24,00.html

Precious poles need a vault

04mar06
WE'VE all heard about being caught up a certain creek without a paddle.

Well, how about Tatiana Grigorieva - 11 days out from the Commonwealth Games without a pole.

The champion pole-vaulter's three prized poles, worth $1500, were stolen while she was away training in Europe over Christmas - and she's still waiting for a new set to arrive from the U.S.

The poles disappeared from the athletics track at Griffith University's Gold Coast campus, where she trains.

Grigorieva, 30, is puzzled as to who would want to pinch three poles, and where would they keep them.

"It's pretty nasty, but I don't want to blame any of the people who work here," she says.

"We don't even know who did it and what the reasons were. There's a lot of questions and no answers.

"I've done everything that's possible to do to find the poles, and I wasn't able to do so."

Grigorieva, the defending Commonwealth champion, is desperate to get her new set of poles from the U.S.

"I'm not able to make another step forward because I'm lacking these poles at the moment.

"But hopefully they will be here before Commonwealth and I will have a bit of time to get used to them and do a few training sessions with them, and then I should be fine."

She dreads the possibility of the poles not arriving in time.

"I would go and find them myself, wherever they are . . . even if they are in the States."