Hooker Qualifies for Pole Vault Final

It was a case of third time’s a charm for Western Australian Steve Hooker in the qualification round of the pole vault last night, after clearing 5.65m with his third and final jump, with a place in Friday’s final on the line.

The automatic qualification height was set at 5.75m but with a deserted stadium and time nearing midnight, no jumper was able to get near that mark. Instead it turned out to be a real tussle, USA gold medal favourite Brad Walker crashed out after making a hash of his three jumps at 5.65m. Walker has jumped the highest in 2008, with a 6.04m earlier in the year and had been expected to feature prominently in Beijing.

There was disappointment for WA’s third time Olympian Paul Burgess after he failed to progress to the finals, knocking down the bar at 5.65m with three attempts.

Steve Hooker is the man that many Australian’s have predicted as a medal chance in Beijing, but it looked early as if Hooker would also miss the medal round after he opted not to attempt the lower heights and jump at 5.65m.

Hooker cleared his vault on the first attempt, but dislodged the bar on his decent to register his first miss. His second jump was a mistake as he miscued his leap knocking down the bar with his hip, Hooker laid motionless for several moments as if considering the precarious position he found himself in.

Whatever he did worked however as Hooker showed his championship pedigree with a fine last attempt that cleared the bar with centimetres to spare, again showing he can be a threat in the final.

The Russian pair of Evgeny Lukyanenko and Igor Pavlov aside American Derek Miles appear to be Hooker’s main rivals for gold at the Bird’s Nest tomorrow evening.