Steve Hooker beats the rain in Melbourne (© Getty Images)
A month after making his first Olympic team in 2004, Steve Hooker competed in the Australian club championships, doing the 200, 400, high jump and 4x100 for his club, Box Hill. He tells us what his club and first vault coach mean to him and why, two days before the Melbourne World Athletics Tour event, he was back.
“I was there for a fund-raising event. The people who went were there because they were helping the club.
“Box Hill Athletic Club has got probably the most-used pole vault facility in Australia. Two or three groups jump on the bags every day, so they get worn out pretty quickly. It’s all funded by the club and the people involved.
“I’ve always had a strong club connection. Box Hill provided a good training environment, with a pole vault facility and weight-training room which you got to use as part of your membership. It was a good environment for training to an elite level.
“It was also a fun place to do athletics. Everyone wanted to be involved, to be part of a team. That’s why it’s Australia’s premier athletic club.
“I’m based in Perth now, but going back was a good experience. I’ve done a lot of things post-Olympics, but this was a very different audience made up of people the majority of whom I’ve known for over a decade. They’ve seen everything in my career. They’d seen times when I would rock up and not be able to pole vault at all, and I’d do the 200 or the high jump, all sorts of events, which is probably what kept me going through those tough times.
“The variety (of events) kept everything fresh. I enjoyed doing other events, enjoyed competing generally. Often, if you’ve reached a high level in what you’re doing, at a club level you don’t find that level of competition in your specific event. It can get a bit mundane.
“Competing against other people in other events. I would get in an environment which would make me strive to improve in those events, even if they were not my favourite.
“Mark Stewart was my original coach at Box Hill. He also coached Emma George originally and is coaching Blake Lucas (who, at 18, recently became Australia’s youngest-ever pole vault champion).
“Mark’s the reason I am where I am. He introduced me to the pole vault and coached me through the first eight years of my career. He coached me from basically not knowing what a pole was, to jumping 5.91 and winning a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2006.
“He didn’t just coach me through good times: he coached me through a lot of harder times when I was struggling mentally with being able to jump. It was his enthusiasm which got me through that.
“Then he was happy to pass me on (to Alex Parnov). Mark wants to see the best for his athletes. I think he feels that if his job is done and somebody else might be able to take an athlete further, he’s happy to pass that athlete on. It’s not at all resentful, he really enjoys watching people go on that he’s helped get a start. He was as happy about the Olympic gold medal as anyone, absolutely he was.
“Now he’s got Blake, who’s young and jumping a ‘pb’ pretty well every time he jumps, which is a really good phase for them both.”
Steven
“I was there for a fund-raising event. The people who went were there because they were helping the club.
“Box Hill Athletic Club has got probably the most-used pole vault facility in Australia. Two or three groups jump on the bags every day, so they get worn out pretty quickly. It’s all funded by the club and the people involved.
“I’ve always had a strong club connection. Box Hill provided a good training environment, with a pole vault facility and weight-training room which you got to use as part of your membership. It was a good environment for training to an elite level.
“It was also a fun place to do athletics. Everyone wanted to be involved, to be part of a team. That’s why it’s Australia’s premier athletic club.
“I’m based in Perth now, but going back was a good experience. I’ve done a lot of things post-Olympics, but this was a very different audience made up of people the majority of whom I’ve known for over a decade. They’ve seen everything in my career. They’d seen times when I would rock up and not be able to pole vault at all, and I’d do the 200 or the high jump, all sorts of events, which is probably what kept me going through those tough times.
“The variety (of events) kept everything fresh. I enjoyed doing other events, enjoyed competing generally. Often, if you’ve reached a high level in what you’re doing, at a club level you don’t find that level of competition in your specific event. It can get a bit mundane.
“Competing against other people in other events. I would get in an environment which would make me strive to improve in those events, even if they were not my favourite.
“Mark Stewart was my original coach at Box Hill. He also coached Emma George originally and is coaching Blake Lucas (who, at 18, recently became Australia’s youngest-ever pole vault champion).
“Mark’s the reason I am where I am. He introduced me to the pole vault and coached me through the first eight years of my career. He coached me from basically not knowing what a pole was, to jumping 5.91 and winning a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2006.
“He didn’t just coach me through good times: he coached me through a lot of harder times when I was struggling mentally with being able to jump. It was his enthusiasm which got me through that.
“Then he was happy to pass me on (to Alex Parnov). Mark wants to see the best for his athletes. I think he feels that if his job is done and somebody else might be able to take an athlete further, he’s happy to pass that athlete on. It’s not at all resentful, he really enjoys watching people go on that he’s helped get a start. He was as happy about the Olympic gold medal as anyone, absolutely he was.
“Now he’s got Blake, who’s young and jumping a ‘pb’ pretty well every time he jumps, which is a really good phase for them both.”
Steven
