Unlucky Pole Vaulter

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31923, 26 February 1969, Page 19

Unlucky Pole Vaulter

The former Canterbury pole vault champion, C. F. Stricke (Technical), yesterday withdrew’ from the pro-: vincial team to contest the New Zealand track and field championships at Hamilton on Friday and Saturday.

Dominant in pole vaulting in Canterbury for more than a decade, Stricke suffered a recurrence of a leg muscle

vincial championship. He was unable to produce his best form and was unexpectedly beaten by the rapidly-improv-ing Technical athlete, M. Walker.

Since then, Strieke has been unable to train, and after giving himself a trial early this week, he has decided to withdraw from the national event. However, he is only 27 and considers himself to be far from finished yet.

“I plan to carry on with my winter training and get back into the thick of it next season.” he said yesterday.

"The injury is an old one, a severe tightening of the muscle. But it badly affects my run up. The last two weeks I have had off from training have upset my whole approach.” This is only the last of a string of upsets he has had this season. At his first competitive outing he strained his neck and then in his second inter-club contest he broke his expensive new fibre glass pole and was lucky to escape injury when he fell to the ground. Fortunately, he has been able to obtain a new pole. Walker, who prevented Strieke winning his tenth consecutive Canterbury championship, has blossomed into a pole vaulter of considerable ability. His vault of 13ft in the Canterbury championship event was an excellent effort and last Saturday he showed that he would be in the running for a place in the national event when he cleared 13ft 3in at his first attempt. He narrowly failed to break Stricke’s provincial record of 13ft Bin, when in his last attempt at 13ft 9in he just scraped the bar and brought it down. The picture shows Walker clearing 13ft 3in at Rugby Park last Saturday.