STEVE Lewis declared "job done" after booking his place in tomorrow's men's pole vault final at the World Athletics Championships – but he still made his supporters sweat.

The 23-year-old, who won a bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, reached the last 12 in Berlin after clearing 5.65m at the third attempt.

But the Light Oaks athlete, who posted an outdoor personal best of 5.72m just three weeks ago, admitted qualification had not come without a scare after the bung at the tip of his pole – that holds it all together – came loose.

However, he recovered to progress to the final at the Olympiastadion

"I've got to be happy with making it into the final, so it's job done," said Lewis.

"But I'd have preferred to secure my place with the first attempt at 5.65m, rather than leaving it until the third.

"I had a problem on my first attempt at 5.65m when the bung at the tip of the pole came off.

"It's normally stuck on, but it wouldn't stay on and I had to change poles because otherwise I might have snapped it.

"I had a real moment of panic when I saw it had fallen off, which put a lot more pressure on me for the next couple of attempts.

"I had been thinking that qualification was going to be in the bag with the way I was jumping, but that really affected my rhythm and, in the end, I was just happy to get through to the final."

Lewis enjoyed a strong winter season, including a fourth-place finish at the European Indoor Championships.

However, he promised to use that momentum to challenge the favourites in the final.

"I've had a personal best not so long ago and now I need to push on," he added.

"My target coming to Berlin was to make it into the final and show people what I can do – so I'm pleased I've done that in the qualifying. Now for the final.

"I don't think that I've been overlooked coming into this event because Steve Hooker and Renaud Lavillenie have been jumping really well, but let's see what happens in the final.

"Pole vault is an event where anything can happen, so it's definitely still quite open in my opinion."

Olympic champion Hooker, a close friend and occasional training partner of Lewis, and world number one Lavillenie both looked assured in qualification.

But Britain's Luke Cutts missed out after three failures at 5.55m.

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