PoleVaultPower.com

http://www.watoday.com.au/sport/hooker- ... -nh2e.html

Hooker prepares for world domination in Perth February 5, 2010 - 7:47AM

Steve Hooker will begin his quest to break Sergey Bubka's hitherto untouchable world record in Perth on Sunday when he jumps for the first time since his incredible gold medal performance at the World Championships last year.

Hooker's effort to win a gold medal in Berlin despite a badly injured groin muscle made the West Australian one of the most bankable track and field stars in the world, and earned him a swag of personal awards.

With Olympic and World Championship gold medals in the bag, the ultimate goal for Hooker is Bubka's mark of 6.15m, which would bring its own glory and a possible financial boon of $100,000.

As revealed by WAtoday last year, WA Athletics believe they will attract the sponsorship to offer Hooker the massive cash incentive to finally surpass one of the sport's greatest names.

The beginning of that campaign will begin at Perth's new athletics stadium on Sunday, with Hooker to jump off his full run for the first time for six months.

Hooker will be joined by fellow Olympians Paul Burgess and James Miller and two other competitors, Luke Vedalago and Mark Jeffery, in the practice run.

it would be fantastic to see Jimmy Miller jumping again -he retired much too early.

Also folks dont hold the bulldust media spin agains Steve - He is just trying to promote the event -he knows as well as any of us how easily the wheels can fall off!!

With a PR of 6.06, Hooker's still 9 cm under Bubka's WR indoors (8 cm outdoors). I know it's fun to speculate on the possiblity of him surpassing the WR ... and for him I guess it's fun to put the bar to 5.16 ... just to be able to get familiar with what a WR height feels like. But I really think he has to inch his way up to the WR more gradually. He has 3.5" to go ... that's a LOT! ... he should shoot for 6.07 next, then maybe 6.10, THEN maybe 6.15. To expect for him to suddenly break the WR without some intermediate progression is expecting too much ... IMHO.

Hooker can probably clear 6.00 anytime he's healthy ... like now. But that extra 0.15 ... that extra 6" ... is much more than most people realize ... especially in the 20' stratosphere.

Actually, his OUTDOOR PR is "only" 6.00 ... so he has another 6"+ to go to break the OUTDOOR WR. How often does someone break their PR by 6"+? Just sayin' ...

Kirk

There is probably some incentive for him to break his country record first and use that as a intermediate as you suggested, if he makes money every time he clears 6m and every time he clears a National Record, I think what you are proposing is fairly reasonable.

If anyone knows about professional pole vault contracts I would enjoy to hear about it.

Opens up/shows up = $
Win competition = $
Clears 6m = $$
Clears NR = $$$
Clears WR = $$$$

If contracts are set up anything like that, then that is a good way to make some bank at a meet.

bel142 wrote:If anyone knows about professional pole vault contracts I would enjoy to hear about it.

Nowadays, most contracts are 20% off coupons on your sponsor's products.

Had a consistent 5.70 vaulter with a 5.80 PR tell me that his best year ever was $16,000.

You better love what you're doing.

Not many American vaulters have a shoe contract anymore. On the guys side, I think you have Brad and Derek with Nike, and Rory with Asics... not even sure if anyone else is still sponsored? Maybe they give some free clothes to a few people, but that's probably it. I don't think adidas has any US guys. For the women, I think it's just Jenn, April, Chelsea, and Lacy?

I believe Gill/Pacer said they'd give Quiller poles for free if he was to clear 5.70 this season. They currently provide carbon weaves to him for 50% off, or so I hear, with his PR at 5.65. I know he was sponsored by Asics, but I'm not sure what that entailed. I could ask him if you guys wanted. -6P

Rightfully so. Sorry, those were very poor results from the men in Boston. Scott of course was respectable. Hardly, world class. It is what it is. That's all I'm saying. One man and two women ranked world top 10. Janson looked the part of jumping well. However, she's appeared erratic from what I witnessed last night.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:Not many American vaulters have a shoe contract anymore. On the guys side, I think you have Brad and Derek with Nike, and Rory with Asics... not even sure if anyone else is still sponsored? Maybe they give some free clothes to a few people, but that's probably it. I don't think adidas has any US guys. For the women, I think it's just Jenn, April, Chelsea, and Lacy?

How do you know Rory Joe, are you from New York too?

IAmTheWalrus wrote:How do you know Rory Joe, are you from New York too?

When Rory is not at Binghamton, or in Colorado with his family, he trains at Heights Unlimited vault club in northern NJ, which is where I mostly train when I'm not at college. -6P

bel142 wrote:If anyone knows about professional pole vault contracts I would enjoy to hear about it.

Opens up/shows up = $
Win competition = $
Clears 6m = $$
Clears NR = $$$
Clears WR = $$$$

If contracts are set up anything like that, then that is a good way to make some bank at a meet.

I'd love to know this stuff too. I think it's just sad if any pole company and any big clothing/shoe company doesn't at least give the "top" vaulters in the US free everything. They should be giving them some kind of salary in my book too, but only getting a discount on gear is a joke and a slap in the face in my book. It's really bad if the pole companies don't give the "top" vaulters free poles. I know it's a tight business, but these "top" vaulters are the pole company's best marketing tool. There's no excuse for Nike, Adidas and the other"big" companies to not give "top" vaulters some kind of small salary contract. These companies have zillions of dollars and the small salaries they could offer vaulters shouldn't even be a blip on their financials. I don't know how any of this works and I could be making some dumb comments because of that. I'm just going off what alot of you have posted on this board about vaulter sponsorship.

I know it's alot about marketing and how much the world sees and knows about pole vaulting, but still. There's absolutely no excuse for not giving free product, especially poles.