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Olympic gold medalist Steve Hooker may have lost his first competition in almost twelve months, but the outlook is still promising with the 26-year-old declaring he ‘felt physically 100% for the first time in ages’.

Hooker competed in Reims, France overnight finishing in third place with a best clearance of 5.77m behind young Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie who won on a count back from his countryman Romain Mesnil (5.82m).

Commonwealth Games 400m gold medalist John Steffensen and reigning 400m hurdles champion Tamsyn Lewis also competed, finishing second and fifth in their respective events.

Hooker, who has been recovering from knee and shoulder injuries for the majority of the year, made clearances at 5.45m, 5.60m and 5.77m but was unable to covert at 5.87m to overcome the in-form young gun Lavillenie and Mesnil.

The third place in Reims is the first competition Hooker has not emerged victorious since finishing behind Russia’s Yevgeniy Lukyanenko at the London Grand Prix on July 26 last year, prior to his spectacular victory in Beijing.

Hooker, who has been on a nine meet winning streak (see below), is far from fazed and is in fact thrilled with the physical state he has been able to get his body in before the World Championships in August.   

“The thing is, I lost but I feel great,” Hooker said.

“My body feels really good and I am running faster which may have caused some minor problems in this competition but will only help in competitions to come.

“I am looking forward to getting in some good training over the coming weeks and coming out flying for the London meet (25th July).”

Steffensen (45.65) finished second behind Jamaica’s Richardo Chambers who took out the men’s 400m race in 45.34 with United States’ Darold Williamson finishing third in 45.82.

Lewis (57.21) has continued to improve on her European season times finishing fifth behind Trinidad and Tobago’s Joanne Lucas (54.17) but has been unable to regain the form she demonstrated at the Australian championships this year where she posted a personal best time of 56.27.  

Many of Australia’s track and field stars, including Sally McLellan, Joel Milburn and Kimberley Mickle, will compete tonight in Luzern, Switzerland.