Hooker and McLellan take top honours

(Sunday, 22 March 2009)

Olympic pole vault champion Steve Hooker and 100m hurdles silver medallist Sally McLellan have been crowned 2008/09 Athletes of the Year at the Athletics Australia gala awards function held in Brisbane this afternoon.

The pair join an impressive list of past winners including Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, Catherine Freeman, Tim Forsyth, Craig Mottram and Jana Rawlinson.

Hooker and McLellan were both presented with a $10,000 cheque which will greatly assist their preparations for the world championships to be staged in Berlin in August.

Hooker had all of Australia in raptures in Beijing when he became the first Australian man in sixty years to win an Olympic gold medal in a field event.

Although the historic gold medal sits firmly at the top of Hooker’s achievements list, it wasn’t the only highlight for the high-flying Western Australian in 2008 and 2009.

Hooker was also named International Athlete of the Year in recognition of his stellar campaigns in the United States, Beijing and Europe. His 2009 efforts have been well-documented – five victories from five competitions, the second-highest jump of all time in Boston (6.06m) and twelve 6.16m attempts at Sergey Bubka’s long standing world record.

With thanks to Athletics Australia.