DAEGU, South Korea, (Reuters) – Australian Steve Hooker battled through injury to win the pole vault world title two years ago but although he is now fit, a lack of practice means he will be battling against the odds to retain his crown.
The 29-year-old Olympic champion begins the defence of the title he won in Berlin in 2009 on the opening day of the Daegu world championships today having struggled with injury for much of the last couple of years.
“In Berlin I was in the position where I actually had something wrong with me physically but I was mentally confident in my jump and knew I could put together jumps when I needed to, so right now it’s the exact opposite of that,” Hooker said yesterday.
“Physically now I’ve got myself into pretty good shape but I just haven’t had the jumps to back that up. I haven’t been in shape for long enough where I’ve been able to get the number of jumps I’ve needed to.”
Hooker, whose leap of 6.06m indoors in the 2009 season was the second highest in history behind retired world record holder Sergei Bubka, only started his competitive season at the end of July.
Also coming to terms with a new fibreglass pole, Hooker’s best jump this season of 5.60 leaves him well down the list of leading results, some 30 centimetres behind the likes of France’s Renaud Lavillenie and Pole Pawel Wojciechowski.
Having won the title in Berlin with a jump of 5.90 despite a groin injury and having failed at 5.85 on his first attempt, the flame-haired Victorian is not ruling out what would be a sensational victory.
“I’m going to have to try and battle my way through this comp and my whole attitude is going to be just to stay alive, and that’s the cool thing about my event, you get three attempts at every height and I just have to make one of those work,” he added.
“I’d like to have jumped 5.90 like a couple of the guys have in the lead up because that gives you the confidence going in that you’ve already done it before.
“I’ve done this for long enough to know that I’ve got results that I didn’t think I’d ever get. I’ve felt like there’s no way I can jump 5.90 and then somehow it comes out and just happens.”
“I know how quickly things can turn around and how quickly you can find an old feeling that you’ve had before, but you don’t have that happen unless you’re optimistic about it and stay positive.”
The pole vault qualifiers take place today with the final on Monday evening.
