http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 22,00.htmlHooker invades Bubka's air space
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Jenny McAsey | February 09, 2009
Article from: The Australian
STEVE HOOKER hung in the air at the height of a two storey building, going where only one other pole vaulter in history has gone before.
The Olympic gold medallist says it was "an amazing feeling" as he pushed himself over a bar perched 6.06m high at an indoor competition in Boston yesterday, a mark that has been bettered only by world record holder Sergey Bubka.
Hooker's 6.06m jump - five centimetres higher than his previous best - was a new Australian and Commonwealth record, surpassing the 6.05m record set by Dmitri Markov when he won gold for Australia at the 2001 world athletics championships.
The mop-haired 26-year-old Hooker is now officially the second-best vaulter in history.
"It was quite a cool feeling going over 6.06. It is really high and I really felt like I stalled out over the bar, I used up all my momentum and really hung in the air up there which was a very good feeling," Hooker said from Boston yesterday.
"I did hit the bar a little bit, but I hit it softly and felt confident it would stay. So it is an amazing feeling falling to the mat after you have done something like that and then I celebrated with my mates in the competition, there were lots of high fives."
Hooker is in a purple patch of form, proving that his Olympic gold medal at a height of 5.96m in Beijing was only a precursor of better to come.
He has competed just twice since that victory last August - in New York last week and Boston yesterday - and both times he has set new personal bests.
He got over 6.06m on his third attempt in Boston and then had the bar raised to 6.16m to try to better Bubka's world record of 6.15m, which has stood for 15 years.
He didn't make it, and intends to try again next week at a competition in Paris. But for now he is more than happy to pass the record of Markov, who led the way for Australian pole vaulters when he migrated from eastern Europe in the mid-1990s.
"It is pretty special to pass Dmitri's mark," Hooker said. "I remember clearly him jumping that 6.05 in Edmonton and what a massive moment that was.
"I don't think it got the recognition it really deserved in Australia, but it is something I have always really respected and it has been a goal of mine.
"So to have finally jumped it is a big moment for me and I hope 'Dim' is happy to hand over his Australian record to me and I say that with the most respect for the guy."
As for the world record, Hooker says his failed attempts have shown him he still has work to do, particularly when it comes to choosing the right pole to propel him that high.
"If I am being realistic I don't think there were any attempts that were so close that I felt ripped off that the bar fell off.
"But I feel that to jump the world record you have to attempt it a few times, and I am working out what poles I need to be on.
"It is a really hard bar and I have to figure out a way of getting it done. I feel like I'm in the sort of shape where I can do it if I get on the right poles.
"I am not going to get ahead of myself. I don't think it's necessarily going to happen next week or the week after, but it is just good to be pushing up towards that level and threatening it."
In other results from Boston, Olympic silver medal winning hurdler Sally McLellan was sixth in the 60m sprint on the indoor track, but broke a 22-year-old Australian indoor record when she clocked 7.30sec.
On Saturday, female pole vaulter Alana Boyd achieved a B qualifying height for this year's Berlin world championships at the Australia Cup track and field meeting in Brisbane.
Despite windy conditions at the Queensland State Athletics Centre, Boyd cleared 4.35m to claim victory.
Boyd's pole vault success was one of many for Queensland in the interstate contest as it finished well ahead of Victoria in the overall standings.
