Steve Hooker says the experience to watch World Athletics Championships’ pole vault final was funny
Steve Hooker, the 29-year-old Australian pole vaulter, who is an also an Olympic gold medallist said that watching this year’s World Athletics Championships pole vault final was a funny experience as he was not a part of the contest.
The Australian, for a personal best of 6.06mm, is regarded as the second highest pole vaulter in the history of the sport.
Expressing his thoughts on an IAAF Online Diaries athletics forum, gold medallist of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, who is now all focused to prevail at the London Olympics 2012, wrote, “Watching the final of my event go on without me in Daegu was a funny experience,
because I knew I wasn’t ready to be out there competing. It wasn’t as upsetting as you might think, because I knew that I wasn’t ready. Especially with the quality of the guys in the final – five at 5.85 – I don’t think I was in that shape.”
Hooker, who is regarded as the first Australian male track and field gold medal winner in last 40 years or so, wrote that for him, it was nice to see the event unfolding. He was of the view that missing the chance to contest for the title did not turn out
to be as painful as his spectators had predicted. The only thing he felt while watching the event was the craving to go out and join the field. He said that now he was ready to go to Australia where he would resume his training and would work on his jump as
much as he could.
The Australian, who was the gold medallist of the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, said that all he was looking forward to was to gain his momentum back. He wants to perform well in the Australian season and finally unleash himself for the London
event.
He stated, “The focus for me now is going to be competing well in the Australian season, putting up some good heights, getting my rhythm back. After that it’s that final preparation for the final run-in to London. I always try to jump high in Australian
season, except for last year, when I was injured.”
Referring to his performance in the 2010 Australian season where he had jumped 5.90m in Doha, Hooker maintained the fact that he normally jumped high. Thus, he said that he intended his best to do all the high jumping during local competitions, rather than
trying for them in European competitions.
All set to resume his game, Hooker revealed that he was ready to participate in this year’s Samsung Diamond League final in Brussels, however, after observing performances of athletes at the World Championships, he re-assessed his current conditions and
decided not to test his luck in the event. However, he decided to end his break earlier and join the game ahead of schedule. To him, extending the season further could offer no further gains.
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