Nigelinoz
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- Dec 14, 2008
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From The Daily Telegraph:
Steve Hooker in Sydney airport jam | PerthNow
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'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 said 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."
Steve Hooker in Sydney airport jam | PerthNow
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'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 said 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."
:shock:
