Gutsy gold for Hooker in Berlin

(Sunday, 23 August 2009)

Olympic champion Steve Hooker has become Australia's second gold medalist of the 12th IAAF World Championships with a gutsy win in the men's pole vault in Berlin overnight.

Hooker, who required a local anesthetic on his injured adductor to take to the runway, cleared 5.90m to secure the win.

On a successful day for Australia at Berlin's Olympic Stadium the Australian Flame captain was joined on the medal dais by young gun Mitchell Watt who claimed bronze in the men's long jump.

Adopting a similar death or glory approach which saw him advance through the qualifying round, Hooker waited until the bar hit 5.85m before taking his first jump. Failing that attempt, the 27-year-old chose to pass at that height and raise the bar to 5.90m.

Sailing over, Hooker held back tears as his fellow competitors failed to improve on his mark, handing him the world championship title.

Hooker now joins Dmitri Markov as one of two Australian pole vault world champions, Markov claiming gold in Edmonton in 2001.

An emotional Hooker said the win was the ultimate conclusion to a challenging few weeks.

"It's just weird, it's very difficult to explain," Hooker said.

"It's a mental battle you have to fight with yourself and you have to convince yourself that you're ready; you're ready to pick up the massive competition pole that's going to throw you nearly six metres in the air.

“You've got to convince yourself that you're ready to do an impressive jump with the stands very close in and you've got to be prepared to take that risk and lucky for me I knew prior to this injury I'd done such fantastic training and what great shape I was in.

"There was one specific training session, the one before I got hurt, where on the pole I jumped on today I jumped a 5.90m-high bar and I knew I had it in me so I could go out there with confidence that that was the right pole, I had the right run-up and if I could just get down the runway it would be enough."

Such was the extent of his injury it was not until the final countdown to the event that Hooker was confident of taking his place in the final.

"Honestly, early on I thought there was no way I was going to jump, my hip was very sore," Hooker said.

"I went in and got a little jab from the doctor when the boys were jumping at 5.65m and when that kicked in I thought maybe I was a chance at jumping.

"It's been a very, very challenging couple of weeks, I've tried to be as honest as possible with everyone through that process. You've all been through that journey with me and it's probably seemed like a rollercoaster to you but believe me, it's been 10 times as bad from my perspective.

"Every day was a question of whether or not I'd jump and going to sleep at night wasn't the easiest thing, I've been sleeping like hell but good people around me have helped me make smart decisions and that's what got me through."

The Beijing gold medalist said the trying experience would hold him in good stead in future years.

"I think I've proven something to myself by this working out the way it has," Hooker said.

"I know I've got a lot more in me and I know if I can do jumps like this under these circumstances then when I'm healthy, when I've got good conditions, massive jumps are not out of the question and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do in the next year.”

With thanks to Athletics Australia.