Aths: Hooker vaults into Olympic history

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2008
Aths: Hooker vaults into Olympic history

By Steve Larkin

BEIJING, Aug 23 AAP - Pole vaulter Steve Hooker tonight won the first Olympic track
and field gold medal by an Australian male in 40 years.

The 26-year-old showed nerves of steel to claim a stunning victory in the men's pole
vault at the Beijing Games.

Hooker cleared 5.90 metres at the National Stadium to secure the first Australian male
gold medal since Ralph Doubell's 800m triumph at the 1968 Games.

Hooker's clearance of 5.90m came on his third and final attempt, after Russian Evgeny
Lukyanenko failed his three tries at that height.

The Russian claimed the silver and Ukrainian Denys Yurchenko the bronze.

It capped a wonderful day for Australian athletics as Jared Tallent had earlier won
silver in the 20km walk to become the first male to win two track and field medals at
one Games since 1900.

After a seemingly nerveless gold medal clearance, Hooker jumped into the arms of his
coach Alex Parnov and gleefully received an Australian flag from the crowd.

The Melbourne born vaulter then returned to set the bar at 5.96m - one centimetre higher
than American Tim Mack's Olympic record set four years ago.

The Australian failed at his initial attempt for the record before clearing it with his second.

Hooker three times cleared heights on his third and final attempt - also at 5.80m and
5.85m - when a failure would have relegated him to the silver medal.

Those feats came after his heart-stopping qualification on Wednesday, when he needed
three tries to clear 5.65m and advance to the final.

AAP sl/tb

KEYWORD: OLY08 ATH AUST NIGHTLEAD

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