is that your 17 ft pole you're carrying or are ya happy to see me?

[Dave (imported)]

Why Steve Hooker is one for the vault

By Tom Smithies and Mike Hurst

March 03, 2009 12:00am

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 23,00.html

Go see the picture, please go see the picture... but go to post #3, this link don't work for some strange reason..(sorry about that)

OLYMPIC gold medallist Steve Hooker might have seen his equipment go through the roof of Sydney Airport but at least the champion pole vaulter won't have to worry about the damage.

As The Daily Telegraph revealed yesterday, Hooker watched in amazement on Sunday as his vaulting poles, longer than 5m, got jammed between the escalators and the roof.

They were carried by Hooker's training partner Paul Burgess and would have snapped but for the quick thinking of another passenger who hit the stop button on the escalator.

Hooker blogged live with The Daily Telegraph last Friday. Read his responses here.

It left a sizeable hole in the ceiling of the domestic terminal but Sydney Airport have confirmed they will sort the repairs out - which leaves Hooker free to concentrate on attacking the world record in his hometown of Melbourne at the World Athletics Tour meet at Olympic Park on Thursday night.

Unbelievably, getting the poles around is an occupational hazard for the man with the second highest jump in the world - and something he has had to learn to live with.

He often has to pay excess baggage fees on the poles, though rarely out of his new base of Perth, and carry them on the plane himself - hence Sunday's mishap.

He said: "It happens everywhere in the world. I'm not a prima donna. The poles have to go on the plane so we do whatever it takes to make sure they do get on the plane."

The Olympian keeps a set in Europe, a set in America and a set in Australia to avoid the issue arising too often, and it's said that he now knows exactly which models of plane can and can't accommodate the 15kg bag of poles.

Remarkably, Hooker has yet to add a major sponsor since the Olympics, though his management company have a string of deals in the pipeline and hope to start making announcements within weeks.

To help things along, The Daily Telegraph approached both Virgin Blue and Qantas yesterday to see if Hooker's valuable cargo could not be accommodated within some sort of travel deal but neither company was able to respond by last night.

[williewoofer (imported)]

Unfortunately when you click on the link it goes to the right site, but the picture or article cannot be found...

[Dave (imported)]

Try this link:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story

/0,,25128952-5001023,00.html

Something messed with the earlier attempt, perhaps pixy-fied electrons.