Hooker Jams Poles In Ceiling at Airport
Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:11 pm
This often happens? The photo is priceless. Bubba
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 23,00.html
Steve Hooker pole-axedArticle from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment By Mike Hurst
March 02, 2009 12:00am
WE apologise for the delay to your journey today . . . but some vaulting poles got jammed into the ceiling and stopped the escalators.
That was the unlikely scenario confronting commuters at Sydney Airport yesterday, and the red-faced owner of the sticks in question was Olympic gold medallist Steve Hooker.
Having been slugged $240 for excess baggage and then been made by airport officials to carry the 5.20m-long fibreglass poles themselves, Australia's top vaulters faltered under the unwieldy load.
This was no way to treat any Olympian, much less Hooker, a top bloke and the first Australian male athlete to win gold for 40 years.
Hooker blogged live with The Daily Telegraph last Friday. Read his responses here.
Hooker's training partner, Paul "Budgie" Burgess, world ranked No. 2 in 2006, was carrying a set of poles owned by Hooker on his shoulder but they tilted as he tried to avoid a glass sign on the ceiling above the escalator.
"It was pretty shocking when it happened because it all happened really quickly," Hooker told Confidential yesterday.
"There was a bit of a glass ledge and Budgie avoided that with the poles and he was trying to do the right thing by turning around to tell me to avoid the glass and that's when his poles went into the wall.
"He was actually trying to do a really good thing, but it didn't work out that well for him.
"And then all of a sudden the poles were just into the wall and then wedged into the step on the escalator and then it was all out of control - they all started to go up into the roof and the poles in the bag started to bend."
Fortunately, some quick-thinking commuter pressed the emergency stop button - otherwise the six poles, each valued at $800, would eventually have shattered.
Hooker said the poles were eventually freed 45 minutes later when a technician came and reversed the escalator.
The athletes meanwhile had missed their flight to Melbourne where they will compete in the Melbourne Track Classic on Thursday night.
The whole insulting episode brought Hooker down with a thud after he starred in Saturday night's Sydney Track Classic, winning the pole vault with a leap of 5.95m - which would have won every gold medal in Olympic history.
Hooker said Burgess was OK, if a little shaken up. "Budgie's all right. He was a bit shocked initially. It was pretty full-on," Hooker said.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 23,00.html
Steve Hooker pole-axedArticle from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment By Mike Hurst
March 02, 2009 12:00am
WE apologise for the delay to your journey today . . . but some vaulting poles got jammed into the ceiling and stopped the escalators.
That was the unlikely scenario confronting commuters at Sydney Airport yesterday, and the red-faced owner of the sticks in question was Olympic gold medallist Steve Hooker.
Having been slugged $240 for excess baggage and then been made by airport officials to carry the 5.20m-long fibreglass poles themselves, Australia's top vaulters faltered under the unwieldy load.
This was no way to treat any Olympian, much less Hooker, a top bloke and the first Australian male athlete to win gold for 40 years.
Hooker blogged live with The Daily Telegraph last Friday. Read his responses here.
Hooker's training partner, Paul "Budgie" Burgess, world ranked No. 2 in 2006, was carrying a set of poles owned by Hooker on his shoulder but they tilted as he tried to avoid a glass sign on the ceiling above the escalator.
"It was pretty shocking when it happened because it all happened really quickly," Hooker told Confidential yesterday.
"There was a bit of a glass ledge and Budgie avoided that with the poles and he was trying to do the right thing by turning around to tell me to avoid the glass and that's when his poles went into the wall.
"He was actually trying to do a really good thing, but it didn't work out that well for him.
"And then all of a sudden the poles were just into the wall and then wedged into the step on the escalator and then it was all out of control - they all started to go up into the roof and the poles in the bag started to bend."
Fortunately, some quick-thinking commuter pressed the emergency stop button - otherwise the six poles, each valued at $800, would eventually have shattered.
Hooker said the poles were eventually freed 45 minutes later when a technician came and reversed the escalator.
The athletes meanwhile had missed their flight to Melbourne where they will compete in the Melbourne Track Classic on Thursday night.
The whole insulting episode brought Hooker down with a thud after he starred in Saturday night's Sydney Track Classic, winning the pole vault with a leap of 5.95m - which would have won every gold medal in Olympic history.
Hooker said Burgess was OK, if a little shaken up. "Budgie's all right. He was a bit shocked initially. It was pretty full-on," Hooker said.
Thats funny though
