Athletics-Australia's Hooker hits new heights on borrowed pole

RALEIGH, North Carolina, Jan 31 (Reuters) Steve Hooker is quite content to compete using borrowed equipment after the world's top-ranked vaulter's poles went missing on a trip from his native Australia to the United States last week.

As he prepares to vault in Friday's Millrose Games at New York's Madison Square Garden, Hooker is in such a rich vein of form that the prospect of competing with someone else's poles is not causing him to lose any sleep.

''I still have no idea where the poles are,'' the Commonwealth Games champion said during a teleconference from New York yesterday, fresh from setting an Australian indoor record of 5.81 metres in Boston last week using one of Jeff Hartwig's poles.

''I nearly killed myself,'' Hooker said as he described how difficult it was to adapt to the American vaulter's shorter pole while warming up.

''I barely made it onto the landing pit, narrowly avoiding the vault box,'' he said.

''(But) the warm-up was probably the kick in the pants that I needed.'' With the adrenaline flowing, he cleared a 2007-leading mark in setting the new national record.

STRONG COMPETION Whether Hooker can go higher with Hartwig's equipment on Friday is debatable, but the Australian knows the competition will be strong, which is one of the reasons he decided to compete in America.

US world silver medallist Brad Walker, ranked second behind Hooker in the 2006 rankings, will compete in New York after skipping the Boston meeting and American record-holder Hartwig will be back to defend his Millrose Games title.

The field also includes Olympic silver medallist Toby Stevenson and US outdoor champion Russ Buller.

Hooker will then return to Australia for the domestic season and some hard training before heading to Europe in June for their summer circuit.

His major goal is the world title in Osaka in August, but along the way, Hooker hopes to join an elite band of vaulters to have cleared six metres.

The 24-year-old thought he had achieved the feat in Melbourne last year, but discovered the bar was at a lesser height.

He went on to clear 5.96 metres in Berlin while Walker became the 14th man to vault six metres in another German meeting.

''It should come this year. I am in good shape,'' Hooker said.

''I think there's a good chance jumping domestically.

''(There's) probably not much of a chance on Friday (at Millrose) because of the shorter runway.'' REUTERS SY MIR RAI1049