WAIS pole vaulter Steve Hooker set an outdoor season best of 5.72m in Poland on Saturday evening to finish third at the Szczecin Janusz Kusocinski Memorial.

The reigning Olympic champion improved his best mark in Europe by 30cms when he cleared the bar in Poland, having previously recorded 5.42 in Rome in May and 5.42 in Lille last month.

The Australian Flame captain said he was pleased to see some results for the work he had been putting into his competition preparation.

"I was just continuing with things I’d been working on, it was nice to have a comp with good conditions. It was a bit cold and the wind was a bit funny. But I had a good warm up and a decent competition.

"All along I said I felt alright and was doing things pretty well, I’d just seen some challenging comps. Tonight was good because I showed it wasn’t just words.”

Steve Lewis (GBR) set a new personal best to win the competition with 5.82, while former world champion Brad Walker (USA) was second with 5.72 and reigning world champion Pawel Wojciechowski (POL) was eighth with 5.42.

At the same competition Benn Harradine (Vic) threw 64.92m in the discus to take second place behind Virgilijus Alekna (LTU) who won in 68.50. Harradine’s second best throw in Europe this year was enough to beat Olympic silver medalist Piotr Malachowski (POL) who was third with 64.29.

Meanwhile Lauren Boden (ACT) was fifth in the 400mH in 56.69. Over in Italy Joss Ross (Vic) won the 100m in a season’s best of 10.23 (-0.1).

- Athletics Australia