22.08.2008

Fields of Gold

Not since Ralph Doubell won gold in 1968, has an Australian male won Olympic gold in athletics.

Tonight, Steve Hooker stamped himself in history, when he won the men's pole vault at the games of the XXIX Olympiad.

Not only did the 26 year year old win, he also broke the Olympic record, when he leapt 5.96 metres through the air.

"I wanted it really, really, really badly. I didn’t sleep a wink last night. Before most things in my life I sort of get a feeling and the last couple of weeks it’s been crystalised in me that I can do this and that I can win and I’ve been thinking about nothing else really. In my mind I guess I’d already done it, and it was just a matter of playing it out in real life," Hooker said.

In a rollercoaster event for his supporters, Hooker regularly left it to his third attempt to get over the bar.

"Five times, once in qualifying and four times in the final. I don’t know, it was good… I thought eighty five was really dicey, I was going off to the side and I thought I should just jump anyway, and I really thank my lucky stars that I cleared that.

"Look it wasn’t the best I’d jumped all night and neither was the third at eighty but lucky clearances meant that I put really good jumps together at ninty and ninty six. I’ll take it, it didn’t look pretty at first but it looked pretty good at the end I reckon," the Olympic champion explained.

Pole vault is a rare event in many ways and Hooker describes that feeling he got when he knew he had won it.

"I obviously knew I was over it and that’s the good thing about my event you get that opportunity to fall to earth and that’s an experience that no other people really get to have in their events or sport or anything so I’m lucky to be a pole vaulter and to be an Olympic gold medalist and an Australia and a lot of things I guess.

"I’m just a lucky guy.

"I took a moment when I was jumping at 5.90 and sat back and realized I was doing something that every kid dreams of. I had my destiny in my own hands. Evgeniy was out of the competition and if I clear that bar I am the Olympic gold medalist and I did think that I was the kind of person who could stand up and take that kind of opportunity on and make the most of it.

"To have done it is a dream come true and its amazing. The reality of it hasn’t sunk in but sailing over that bar with a clean clearance I really got to enjoy it and I got a good man hug from Alex, which was pretty nice."

It was our first Olympic gold in track & field since that magical night in Sydney when Cathy Freeman won the 400m.

Australia hadn't won a field event gold since John Winter took out the high jump back in 1948.

In a tight competition, Captain Hook had a first up clearance at 5.60m.  He was the only athlete to have not missed at any height at that point, after he opted to pass at the first up height of 5.45m.

Nine athletes were in contention at 5.70m, as Hooker again passed.

Russian Evgeniy Lukyanenko and Ukraine's Denys Yurchenko were the only ones to cleared at 5.70m with no failures.

With seven left in the competition, the bar was raised to 5.75m and again Hooker passed.

With the majority of the Aussie team cheering him on, a tight battle ensued with the Russian.

Yurchenko left the competition after clearing 5.70m due to injury, which left Hooker a guaranteed silver, once misses at 5.80m omitted the rest of the field.

Both Hooker and Lukyanenko cleared 5.85m on their third attempts. 

It came down to the last round at 5.90m, after both athletes had failed their first two attempts.  With the Russian missing first, Hooker at the chance to take outright gold - and he did.

A barefooted Alex Parnov then cleared the fence to embrace the athlete whom he has coached for the past few years in Perth.

"Look both of my coaches have been the biggest influences of my life. Without Mark Stewart I probably wouldn’t have even discovered pole vault and never would have had the early part of my career, never would have learned to just be a fierce competitor and go guts and balls out.

"Then moving to Perth, Alex has taught me all sorts of things about technique, about being professional, about lifestyle, about everything.

"They’ve both had such a great influence and without either of them all the pieces wouldn’t have been there for this to happen. They can take equal credit for this, they are both amazing guys, they are both two of my closest friends in the world.

"There’s more than that as well, there’s my training partners – both from Box Hill and Perth, they’re there every day making it a pleasure to go to training. It doesn’t feel like work or a job or something that I have to do, it’s something that I want to do and I love doing every day. That’s the thing I take out of this, I love it, I love what I do and this is just icing on the cake," he said.

Naturally an event like pole vault takes physical strength, but the mental element of going through the ebs and flows is one that only few, like Hooker, can muster.

"The whole thing is really about relaxing you know, I do my best jumps when I’m relaxed you know and I wasn’t that relaxed at the start of the competition I was pushing too hard on the runway and needed to let it go.

"As the competition went on I started to get tired and had to do that or I wouldn’t have survived. So that’s all it was I was just saying relax, took deep breaths and all that stuff. You don’t think of much when you are out there.

"I think the big change for me was that I didn’t think about consequences of missing or clearing, I was just in the moment for it. I didn’t think about the interviews I would have to do if I missed and came fifth in the Olympics and in the past that’s something I have worried about but I was just in the moment, I was out there enjoying it, I was loving being out there and in a dog fight with Evgeniy and I think that was the difference, I just loved it. I loved having third attempt clearances, I loved it all being on the line, I loved it.

Read more about Steve Hooker on his Athletics Australia profile or www.stevehooker.com.au.

Four years ago in Athens, our men's 4 x 400m team created headlines by winning the silver medal.

This year, the boys have kicked off their campaign in Beijing, by running the third fastest time ever by an Australian team.

Their time of 3.00.68 was only 8/100ths slower than their silver medal effort from Athens and less than a second behind the un-backable favourites the USA.

The team consisted of Joel Milburn, Mark Ormrod, John steffensen, Clinton Hill, and in that order.

“We are pretty happy to get through and would have been really unhappy not to get through. The time we showed was postitive with the guys we had, but we’ve got Wroey to come in so we’ll be even stronger tomorrow. We are quite happy with this as an opening,” said Mark Ormrod who ran the second leg.

The run was enough for 4th in the heat, behind the USA, Russia and Belgium.  The second and third place countries both set national records.

As the youngest member of the team, Joel Milburn has had an impressive games, recording a personal best in the heats of the individual event and is now in a final at his first Olympics.

“We are definitely capable of going under 3 minutes and if we do that I reckon we can break the Australian record, 2.59.7 I think it is. We just ran 3.00.6 and this is our B team so with Sean Wroe in here I’m pretty sure we can do that, it just depends on how the changes go and how the race pans out but we are looking forward to coming out and hopefully winning a medal," Milburn said.

After Jared Tallent's silver medal this morning Friday August 22 will be one to remember.