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http://www.iaaf.org/GP07/news/Kind=2/newsId=37782.html

Hooker prevails in PV battle



With four men who have cleared six metres in the field, the Pole Vault had been expected to yield something potentially great, but it was Melbourne's Steve Hooker, whose personal best is "only" 5.96m (Berlin 2006) who flew to victory with a leap of 5.81m after a long, tense and tactical battle.

Hooker won the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup and was merit ranked No.1 in the world last year.

"I'm just jumping what I need to win at the moment. I now get to hold my world ranking until at least the middle of the year, so I'm happy with that," Hooker said.

"I'm keeping a little in the tank at the moment, waiting for (the Osaka World Championships in) August when it really counts.''

He defeated reigning World Indoor champion Brad Walker, whose second-placed 5.71m was also an Osaka World Championship A-qualifier. West Australian Paul Burgess, winner of the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart last year, was third on 5.50m ahead of America's Athens Olympic silver medallist Toby Stevenson (5.35m).

Dmitri Markov, the 2001 Edmonton World champion - and the second higher vaulter in history with his Australian record 6.05m - struggled with a chronic foot injury and managed to clear his opening height of 5.35 on the third attempt, before failing at 5.50m. He said Melbourne would be his farewell meet.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/hoo ... 87948.html

Hooker on high as champ bows out

By Len Johnson
March 3, 2007

Steve Hooker rises to new heights in winning the pole vault.
Photo: Vince Caligiuri


But it was good for all that. Steve Hooker kept the Melbourne crowd, the family and himself happy enough with a meeting record win in the pole vault.

Hooker's 5.81 metres added a centimetre to the record previously held by Dmitri Markov, a poignant note given the fact that it was Markov's swansong.

Crippled by a foot injury that has not allowed him to train, the 2001 world champion averted disaster when he cleared his opening height 5.35 on his third and final attempt, but he could go no higher.

Hooker, Brad Walker, who was second at 5.71, Paul Burgess, third at 5.50, and Toby Stevenson all warmed up for almost an hour before the competition. Markov just jumped.

"I can't do a warm-up and compete on the same day," he explained simply. So a man who won a world title and jumped the second-highest height of all time with a temporarily busted foot now limps into retirement with a chronic one. We shall miss him.