Hooker Set for London
A third Olympic Games are closer to a reality for reigning champion Steve Hooker after the 29-year-old WAIS scholarship holder sailed over 5.72m in Perth on Friday night to secure an Olympic A-qualifier.
Hooker opened his campaign at his indoor training facility with a second round clearance of 5.52m before making light work of 5.62m on his first attempt. Recovering after a narrow miss on his first tilt at the Olympic qualifying mark, the Australian and Oceania record holder soared over 5.72m with ease when next given the chance.
Hooker said: “I’m very, very relieved but at the same time so damn excited.
“For a while there I thought I was a shoe in to make London and losing that certainty and having to fight like I have to get back was a challenge I didn’t see coming. It is something that I am just stoked to have gotten over.
“It has been months and months of jumps, jumps and more jumps – thousands of jumps, seriously – to be back at this level. We stripped it right back to basics, made a real effort to get the things that were letting me down right and from there begun the process of building my heights up,” he said.
Set to join his international rivals at Round 2 of the Diamond League in Shanghai (CHN) next weekend, Hooker is acutely aware that the result, while fantastic, is simply a milestone in a much bigger plan.
Hooker said: “This is great, but it is only one thing on the road to London.
“I now need to get into the rhythm of competing again, and doing that in conditions where not all the variables are controlled. That’s why I’m looking forward to Shanghai and then Europe as it will be where I can continue to develop before the Games in situations that are out of my power and against athletes that will challenge me the whole way to London.”
Hooker was joined on the runway by former national champion Blake Lucas and IAAF world youth championships finalist Brodie Cross, with the Victorian duo clearing 5.02m and 4.82m respectively.
In the women’s event, world junior championships bound WAIS athlete Liz Parnov cleared 4.22m off eight steps, while Australian record holder and WAIS training partner Alana Boyd set a new six-step approach personal best of 4.12m.
The reigning Olympic champion, Hooker’s international resume also includes the 2009 world title, the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medals, the 2010 world indoor championship and a 6.06m Australian and Oceania record.
He is a three-time national champion and the current captain of the Australian Flame, Australia’s athletics team.
–Athletics Australia