PoleVaultPower.com

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Hooker grounded in Newcastle
Updated: 06:26, Sunday September 19, 2010
Steve Hooker has had a close shave in his final meet before next month's Delhi Commonwealth Games with the Olympic champion missing the matt in northern England.

The pole vaulter failed to register a height in the gusty conditions at an Australia v England competition on the banks of the River Tyne in Newcastle, won 5-4 by the home nation.

The world, Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion failed in his three attempts at 5.40m at the Great North City Games but was fortunate not to injure himself as he came down near the right support on his second jump.

'It was one of those days in a sense,' he said.

'It was not the easiest conditions to jump in.

'I had a couple of hairy winds and that is why I missed the pit and that shook me up for my last jump a little bit.'

The team captain said he was physically fine but felt he had let his colleagues down.

'I think in the end, it was the difference between the teams,' he said.

'We pushed them all the way it was just a pity I could not do my job.'

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnqfjp0He5U

Here is a much poorer quality video of the same footage, in case the first one gets taken down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKK1D7ArHpo

Another situation where not letting go of your pole may have resulted in a bit better result.

Nice: no padding at all around the base of the standards. (And a metal fence about 5 ft off the pit.) Looks like his right foot/leg hit the pad, and the left foot/leg landed in the hole where the base padding should have been. At least he landed feet first.

I'm not sure hanging onto the pole would have beeen better: he was moving sideways and hanging on might have resulting in him hitting the metal fence.

Looks like the upright protectors are at the front of the front buns???

Don't like the name of the youtube title, and description...
Glad he's okay especially coming up to the Commonwealth Games in India next month

Glad Steve has not been physically injured. The pschological consequences for him may be another story!

It is unbelieveable to see on the video that the jumping situation was so obviously dangerous. Landing area not properly protected,fencing too close to the jumping area and the standard rails completely exposed, bar lifter close to the standard rails, illegal front buns etc..

Not a good advert for pole vaulting because the athlete was no doubt under commercial and Nationalistic pressures to perform in dangerous conditions and environment, athlete's management failed their duty of care to their athlete and competition organisers failed to provide a safe performance environment.

A pox on the Poms for being so badly organised and a brick bat to Steve's management team for having him compete in this farcical competition so close to Commonwealh Games.

This could so easily have ended disastrously for a great athlete and sounded the death knell for pole vault!

If anyone else wants to email the organizers with an objection to the conditions, I was only able to find a general email on the meets "Contact us" page of info@greatrun.org and nicola.hedley@nova-international.com. I sent an email (pasted below) to those addresses, and also CC'd it to a nhoward@uka.org.uk at the UKA organization (which I think is the UK version of USATF). I also pasted a copy of the email into the "Contact us" page at the UKA website (they didn't list actual adddesses, you had to submit an "email" via a webpage), which can be found at http://www.uka.org.uk/governance/contact-us/ (In the "email" to the UKA, I noted that it was a CC of an email I tried to get to the organizers of the meet)

So, if you decide to send an email, after you send it please also go to the UKA contact page and paste there as well. UKA might not have had any formal contact with the meet organizers, but I would presume they have some influence.

----------------------------------------------
To: info@greatrun.org; nicola.hedley@nova-international.com
CC: nhoward@uka.org.uk
Subject: Your shockingly unsafe Pole Vault facility for Great North City Games

I recently viewed the video of Steve Hooker landing off the pit at the Pole Vault event at the Great North City Games yesterday. The video showed clearly that the Pole Vault site was shockingly dangerous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnqfjp0He5U

There were no pads around the base of the standards (the upright poles on either side that hold the bar in place) where he landed. Illegal

There was a metal fence within 5 feet of the pit, where he would have landed it he hung onto the pole once he decided to abort the jump. Illegal

There was numerous hard objects on the ground immediately adjacent to the pit where his body fell after landing. Illegal.

If you cannot provide a legally safe pole vault venue, then you have no business running a pole vault event. If your pit was a US college or high school pit, the event would have been shut down immediately. If the safety of the athletes is of little concern to you, you are in the wrong business. The vaulters should have assessed the situation and refused to compete that day, but in the end your decision to provide them that unsafe venue left them with the hard choice of having wasted their time traveling to the meet, or hoping nothing went wrong.

The pole vault is a dangerous event, and you had a responsibility to make the venue safe for the competing athletes. You failed.

Boo people.....

Did anyone also notice that Hooker did in fact take his 3rd attempt as well.

If it was so so unsafe wouldn't he pull out of the meet or was it his fault he went that far right?

ADTF apparently took his post down, and asked me to remove my quote of it. So I have. However, so that my reply has context, I will note that in the post he asked others not to email the event hosts, stated that only US HS and NCAA have rules regarding the size of the pit, advised me (after examining the number of post I made in the safety forum) not let my child vault, and (although I'm a bit unclear whether he thinks the conditions were appropriately safe) suggested that improving the safety at pro events would financially harm the athletes (I suppose, either making the event too costly to hold, or diminished prize/appearance money available for the competing athletes).

ADTF Academy wrote: Post deleted

Good sleuthing on your part to discover I'm concerned with safety. And thanks for the advice on what I should do (I'll think about it). But if you feel differently, why not email them and instead give a counter point of view.

BTW, I don't mean to contradict you, but I think perhaps you might be mistaken about the US being the only country that has rules on pit size and padding for the standards? For example, (I don't know) you might want to check out the IAAF rule book? Rule 183-9 (among others) seems (to my inexpert eye) relevant here: "The metallic structure of the base and the lower part of the uprights *MUST* be covered with padding of appropriate material in order to provide protection to the athletes and the poles." Now I'm not a coach, so I may be totally miscomprehending this, so I'll leave it to you experts to point out the error of my ways.

BTW2: I understand your argument that it might cost (a bit more) money to make a safe, rule-compliant, venue, and I recognize that any additional cost of a meet does mean that less money would then be available for the athletes. I suppose the same argument can be made about conditions in coal mines and NASCAR/Indy racing venues. I'll have to think about that.