Flying higher still - Steve Hooker scales 6.06m in Boston (© Victah Sailer)
Track and Field athletics “Down Under” may henceforth be renamed as "Field and Track" if Steve Hooker fulfils his potential and becomes the next Australian World record holder on Saturday (28 February).
Hooker, the Olympic pole vault gold medallist, hopes to take another crack at an outright World record height of 6.16m (indoor is 6.15 and outdoor 6.14) when he competes in the Sydney Track Classic at Homebush from 6pm local time.
The Sydney Track Classic is one of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be held on 12-13 September in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Track events usually grab the attention, perhaps in part because only four Australians have ever set a World record in a field event (jumping or throwing). The most recent was Emma George on 20 February 1999 when she set her 11th Pole Vault record with a clearance of 4.60m in Sydney.
The last male World record breaker was Jack Metcalf, who triple jumped 15.78m in 1935 in Sydney.
The only other record breakers in the field were Nick Winter who triple jumped 15.52m in Colombes in 1924 and Anna Pazera who threw the javelin 57.40m in Cardiff on July 24, 1958.
Hooker has taken 16 attempts at the record set by peerless Ukrainian Sergey Bubka and if the air is hot - as forecast - and a tailwind favours him, anything could happen on Saturday.
“Oh, if we had a bit of a tailwind it would be nice. It would probably help me get on some bigger poles and that's what I need to do to jump high,'' said Hooker.
“It will be just a case of feeling it out on the day and trying to sort out some way of jumping high, really, which is what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks” (in the US and Europe where he has won five world class competitions in a row).
“You've always a chance when you go out there to compete to jump a World record I guess. Especially in the sort of form I've been in lately. I wouldn't say it's a certainty though.”
In fact victory is not a certainty even on paper because this will be a contest, not merely a demonstration.
American Tim Mack, who won gold at the previous Olympics in Athens, is competing in Sydney, as is Australia's forgotten man, Paul Burgess, who was ranked No.2 in the world in 2006 when he cleared 6m.
But Hooker’s main opponent is set to be Yevgeniy Lukyanenko, the tall Russian who won the silver medal in Beijing, jumped a season’s best of 5.82m for second place behind Hooker in Donetsk on 15 February and is returning to form. The World indoor champion in 2008 has personal bests of 6.01m (outdoors) and 5.90m (indoors) both set last year.
Before Beijing they had met in six competitions during their careers and the Russian had won them all. The fear of losing can help concentrate the mind and this may be just the impetus Hooker needs to add the World record to his Olympic record.
“I think if I can get myself a little bit fresher and get on the right poles and technically do the right thing it can happen,'' he said.
To chat with Steve Hooker log on at 11am Australian Eastern Summer Time at www.dailytelegraph.com.au
Mike Hurst (Sydney Daily Telegraph) for the IAAF
