OLYMPIC and world pole vault champion Steve Hooker was left hobbling yesterday, and so was the reputation of the Stawell Gift.

An embarrassing blunder in track measurement left the contenders racing over 123.2 metres in Saturday's heats of the $60,000 handicap race.

For the first time in its 129-year history, the Stawell Athletic Club admitted it had incorrectly measured the famous grass track, leaving the runners to cover an extra 3.2m, which affected the qualifying results for today's semi-finals.

The club believes "human error in misreading the steel tape used in measuring the track" caused the problem.

That left Victorian Athletic League stewards pouring over videotape of the heats on Saturday and yesterday morning to determine which other athletes might have progressed if the finish line had been in the right position.

Three men were promoted on Saturday -- Craig Foley, Edward Ware and Grant Billingham -- while Hooker (third in his heat) and Ryan Hoffman joined the lucky losers yesterday. Four competitors were also added to the women's gift semi-finals.

However, Hooker was forced to withdraw after pulling up with groin soreness.

"When I woke up this morning my groin was inflamed and after what happened at the world championships (where he competed injured), and with the national titles just two weeks away, it's not a risk I can afford to take," Hooker said.

"At the end of the day, I haven't got that much hope either, so I will be happy to sit in the stands and watch the real sprinters fight it out."

His fellow world championships medallist, long jumper Mitchell Watt, reached the semi-finals from the back mark (2.5m) at Stawell, after finishing second in his heat.

Fittingly, he remarked after his first run on the track that it was "a lot longer than I thought".

"It's my second race in nine years so I didn't know what to expect. Running on grass, I felt like I was back in primary school," he said.

But Canberra's Tom Burbridge will go into the deciding rounds as favourite after winning the final heat in 12.48sec (off 8.75m), the day's fastest time.

Coached by former Olympic hurdler Matt Beckenham, Burbridge, 25, went into the event under the radar after a bad run of injuries.

He has had three hip operations, torn discs in his back and still has stress fractures. "I know what I am capable of and I haven't really been able to show it unfortunately," Burbridge said.

Other heat winners included the defending champion Aaron Stubbs, from Queensland, and Commonwealth Games hurdler Greg Eyears.