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Hooker aiming for six metres at home

 

Hooker aiming for six metres at home

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AOC
Hooker aiming for six metres at home

Australian pole vault wizard Steve Hooker is aiming to thrill home fans with a six metre clearance after completing a perfect

Australian pole vault wizard Steve Hooker is aiming to thrill home fans with a six metre clearance after completing a perfect international indoor campaign with a fifth straight victory.

In what is becoming his trademark, Olympic champion Hooker produced another third attempt escape act to snatch victory at the GE Gala meeting in Stockholm early Thursday AEDT.

The 26-year-old West Australian won by snatching a last-gasp 5.86m clearance when sitting in third place with two men ahead of him on 5.81m.

Feeling the effects of his gruelling schedule, Hooker went on to have three attempts at 6.00m but was unsuccessful.

In a high quality competition, Russia's Pavel Gerasimov produced a new personal best to finish second at 5.81m and Sweden's home town favourite Alhaji Jeng recorded a national record to finish third, also at 5.81m.

Hooker remains unbeaten since he cleared 5.96m to win the Olympic gold in Beijing last August and he has cleared six metres on three occasions, including the 6.06m leap in Boston that left him second only to retired great Sergey Bubka in the alltime record books.

"I am really stoked to finish the trip with five wins," said Hooker. "It is completely unexpected given the interrupted preparation before I left."

Despite the arduous schedule, Hooker was confident he could get back up to jump well at the Sydney Track Classic on February 28, the world athletics tour event Melbourne on March 5 and the Australian Championships in Brisbane from March 19-21.

"I am looking forward to returning home, having a bit of a rest before getting up for Sydney," Hooker said.

"I will have about ten days rest so I expect to be a new man.

"It would be nice to jump six metres on Australian soil again so it will be great if the home crowd came out and cheered us on."

Beijing Olympic silver medallist Yevgeniy Lukyanenko, who is set to take on Hooker down under, was unsuccessful in all three attempts at 5.51m in Stockholm and failed to make a clearance.

However, Hooker revealed that Lukyanenko had suffered a slight strain of his tricep at the recent Donesk meet and wasn't quite ready for competition.

"He (Lukyanenko) didn't have any power off the pole tonight but has guaranteed me that he will be ready and raring to go when he arrives in Sydney."

AAP

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