Hooker Wins Paris Golden League Meet

Western Australian Institute of Sport pole vaulter Steve Hooker has continued his solid build up to Beijing by taking out the title at the IAAF Golden League meet in Paris on Saturday .

The 26-year old claimed first place on a countback with a best jump of 5.70m, eclipsing German Alexander Straub. Fellow WAIS pole vaulter Paul Burgess also took another step back to top form with his jump of 5.50m earning him fourth place.

Hooker narrowly missed his first attempt at 5.80m before another miss on his second attempt saw him raise the bar to 5.85m for his third which he also narrowly couldn’t manage.

“I feel like I was jumping well enough to jump higher,” the former world number one said.

“It was tricky conditions so I’m glad I held it together pretty well. It’s only my third competition so I’m ironing out some kinks.”

Both Hooker and Burgess now move to London for next week’s star studded London Grand Prix meet at Crystal Palace where they will come up against Olympic favourites American Brad Walker and Russian Evgeniy Lukyanenko.