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Burgess set for big leap
Scott Gullan
16jan06

LAST year was clearly the best year of his career, yet pole vaulter Paul Burgess can't help but feel frustrated.

While no one in the world went higher than Burgess last year -- he also had three of the top five jumps -- the West Australian is still hurting after being denied his chance to prove himself on the international stage.
After becoming only the eighth vaulter in history to clear 6m, Burgess was brought crashing back to earth when he tore his calf while doing some run-throughs in training a month out from the August world championships.

"It was hard to take," he said. "The biggest problem was that I didn't get my chance to prove myself overseas . . . I jumped 6m and I haven't got to compete against anyone yet."

Burgess cleared 5.91m, 5.95m and 6m in a brilliant Australian summer that shot the Athens Olympic finalist to No. 1 in the world rankings.

He maintained the position for the whole year, despite being sidelined for nearly half of it.

"At the end of the day, even though I didn't get to do anything, it was the best year of my career," he said.

Burgess has fully recovered from the calf problem and is on track to make up for last year's disappointment at the Commonwealth Games.

In his second competition back and using his full run-up at a meeting in Perth on Saturday, the 26-year-old cleared 5.80m in a much-needed confidence boost ahead of next month's selection trials.

Victoria's Steven Hooker, who did make it to Helsinki but failed to make the final, also showed he was nearing peak form with a leap of 5.80m at Box Hill on Saturday night.

With former world champion Dmitri Markov back competing after foot surgery and former Russian Viktor Chistiakov back in training, Burgess knows there can be no mistakes at the Games trials in Sydney on February 2-5.

"The thing with pole vault is that is an unpredictable event, and it is going to be very hard to make the team as there is no pre-selection," he said.

A silver medallist at the past two Commonwealth Games, Burgess will next vault at the opening meeting of the Telstra A-series season in Canberra next week.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:Burgess cleared 5.91m, 5.95m and 6m in a brilliant Australian summer that shot the Athens Olympic finalist to No. 1 in the world rankings.

He maintained the position for the whole year, despite being sidelined for nearly half of it.

#1 in the World Standings where they just list by height. Not #1 in the World Rankings where they factor in other things like competing in big meets.

Burgess vaults back into the limelight

By Len Johnson
February 14, 2006

PAUL Burgess cleared six metres in the pole vault last year, the only man in the world to reach that benchmark height in 2005. But the 26-year-old West Australian missed his main goal when injury put him out of the world championships.

Burgess started 2006 firmly in the limelight that bypassed him last year when he cleared 5.80 metres in beating a field of the world's best to win at the Pole Vault Stars competition in Donetsk, in Ukraine. The Australian won on countback from Alhaji Jeng, of Sweden. Przemyslaw Czerwinski, of Poland, was third with a 5.70 clearance, the highest leap indoors or outdoors for the 22-year-old.

Burgess began with poles borrowed from Russian vaulter Igor Pavlov. At 5.20 metres in length, these were significantly longer that than his own five-metre poles. He then had to decide whether to gamble on switching back when his own poles did turn up, with the bar now at the winning height.

"It was kind of risky to switch at that point," Burgess, 26, told the International Association of Athletics Federations website.

But he slotted straight back into his rhythm, and went over 5.80 on his first attempt, raising his own national indoor record in the process.

It is the first time he has competed in Donetsk, the home town of all-time great Sergey Bubka, a competition he described as unbelievable.

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