Paul Burgess clears 5.80 to win Adelaide meet (© Getty Images)
In the most theatrical of weather conditions, pole vaulter Paul "Budgie" Burgess became only the 13th man in history to fly over six metres yesterday in a low-key interclub event in his home town of Perth in Western Australia.
The previous last men to have joined this elite club were the Americans Tim Mack (6.01, Monaco 18 Sep 2004) and Toby Stevenson (6.00, Modesto 8 May 2004), respectively last summer’s Olympic gold and silver medallists.
Quality pedigree
"There were thunderstorms and the conditions were really weird," Burgess said after leaping onto centre stage in Australian sport. "The sea breeze that usually arrives, didn't. I thought, oh well, I'll try to squeeze out maybe 5.80m and I warmed up not feeling so well.”
"But I opened at 5.70m and cleared that first time, then went to 5.85m and cleared that first time by 16cm. I put it up to 6.00m and cleared it first time by about 10cm, I didn't even get close to touching it.
"It's amazing. I can't believe it. I can hardly even comprehend what's happened. It's come out of nowhere.”
Well, not really. Burgess, now 25, won the World Junior Championship in Sydney in 1996, collected a couple of silver medals at the last two Commonwealth Games and reached his first Olympic final in Athens six months ago.
Moving up a notch in 2005
However things have moved up a notch since then. In January he cleared an Australian all-comers record of 5.91m in Perth, then upped that to 5.95m again in Perth this month, although he lost at the Melbourne IAAF Grand Prix II meeting before winning with 5.80m last weekend at the Telstra A-series meeting in Adelaide.
With the Telstra Australian Championships in Sydney next weekend, Burgess and his coach, Alex Parnov, decided to continue competing and iron out the last technical wrinkles. It seems apparent they were successful.
Parnov of course has been there before. This is his second Six-Metre Man: he also coached Dmitri Markov to clear 6.05m in winning the 2001 IAAF World Championship in Edmonton.
Although Burgess has yet to go anywhere near 6m in a major tournament, that day may dawn soon.
"I had one jump at (an Australian record) 6.06m today, but my calves were cramping. After 5.85m they felt like they were going to cramp," Burgess explained.
"I thought I could have a crack at this height (6.06m) but I didn't want to ruin myself, or take that chance by cramping up with the Australian titles starting next Friday.”
Mike Hurst (Daily and Sunday Telegraph) for the IAAF
