Aussie duo vault into medals

Australia has gone one-two in the men’s pole vault with Victorian Steve Hooker taking gold and Dmitiri Markov winning silver tonight at the MCG.

Hooker entered the competition at 5.6 metres, when only himself, Markov and fellow Australian Paul Burgess were left in the field.

While Burgess failed to clear the height, Hooker did it first time while Markov decided to wait until 5.7 after he cleared 5.5.

After Markov failed in his first attempt at 5.7, Hooker cleared the height in one go again, meaning Markov needed to go higher than Hooker to claim gold.

Markov decided to forgo his next two attempts at 5.7, and instead raised the bar to 5.75, but struck out both times, leaving the 23-year-old Hooker with the gold while the 2001 world champion claimed silver.

England youngster Steven Lewis took home bronze after earlier clearing 5.5, but he failed at 5.6 and had to wait for Burgess’ vaults to see if he would be in the medals.

The win was a shock for Hooker, who is still waiting for the win to sink in.

“It hasn’t really sunk in at the moment. It has sort of been a strange experience – a bit out of body,” he said. “I didn’t really feel like myself out there, I just felt like I was a spectator watching on, and it just sort of all happened.”

Tomorrow night sees three Australians in the women’s pole vault final, with Kym Howe, Tatiana Grigorieva and Victoria Parnov aiming for gold on the final night of competition at the MCG.

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