News
Champ rates chances
Olympic pole vault champion and captain of the Australian Flame, Steve Hooker, who has been battling with an adductor injury since the team camp in Cologne 10 days ago, spoke today on his chances of competing in the qualifying round on the morning of August 20.
“The situation is moving forward as well as it
possibly could," Hooker said.
"I’m making progress every day. I’ve had the course of
injections that I was going to have, so it’s going as well as it
can. It’s probably better odds than I gave myself before I arrived
in Berlin. It was really 50-50 then, but now I’ve moved up to
60-40.”
Athletics Australia High Performance Manager
Eric Hollingsworth two days ago rated Hooker’s
chances of competing at 70-30 but Steve felt it was a little
hopeful and despite really wanting to compete for his country, was
focused on making the best decision for his long-term future.
“Potentially any time you can re-aggravate injuries. I really want
to compete, especially after last night being in the stadium and
feeling the atmosphere. Emotionally I really want to compete but
I’ve got to make the smart decision for the long term,” he
said.
“It’s about my long-term health. I want to be able to jump for a long time for Australia and if I feel like I’m going to go out there and tear my adductor off I’m not going to do that. It’s going to be a last minute decision as to whether I jump or not. I’m not going to make that decision today or tomorrow. I’m just going to do everything I can to try and get myself to the line.”
Hooker and coach Alex Parnov
have been out to the training track and the gym between physio
sessions doing gentle run-throughs and gymnastics in an endeavour
to keep the champion in form.
“I’ve done easy accelerations up to 60 or 70%. I put on spikes for
the first time yesterday , but once again, just really easy stuff,”
Hooker said.
Despite the frustration of the injury, Hooker
has been focusing on the strategy that will hopefully get him
through the qualification rounds if he does start.
“I definitely won’t be doing any jumping prior to Thursday morning
but we’ll see what happens when I get out there, what strategies
I’m going to have for the competition if I do jump. In the
qualifying round I’ll probably just try and get one jump out,” he
said, and went on to point out that he would have another 56 hours
to heal before the final.
“It’s frustrating, it really is a case of bad
luck.
"I don’t feel like there were any warning signs before the
injury, there was no way I knew it was going to happen and for it
to happen 10 days before the qualifying round is disappointing
after what was quite a good preparation.”
It’s been a different preparation for the team
captain and at times it has been trying but his positive attitude
and strength have been an inspiration to his teammates.
“I’ve enjoyed a bit of a different experience. I’ve been out to the
track the last couple of nights and they’ve been really great
nights of athletics so I’ve enjoyed it, I guess, having a bit less
pressure on my competition and a little less focus on it. I’m just
trying to make the most of the experience, being in Europe, being a
member of the Australian Flame, being the captain of the team and
trying to support my teammates. It’s been a different experience
and hopefully that works out as a positive if I get to jump.”
In the inaugural Flame number draw the captain drew No 13, unlucky for some, but Hooker has grown to like it. “At first I thought, 'that figures', but I think it’s quite a cool number, a unique number so I’m happy with 13.”
At the world championships in 2001 in Edmonton
Dmitri Markov overcame a serious injury to take
the gold medal. Markov too was coached by the Russian mastermind
Parnov, which gives Hooker great confidence in his coach's
ability to get him up for Thursday.
“Alex has a long history of athletes injured before majors who
managed to get it together and jump well. I’m not going to lose any
form in that last 10 days or whatever so if I can get out there and
jump I’ll still be in the shape I was in before the injury. I know
if I get out there and I’m in good enough shape I’m sure I’ll jump
well.”
Parnov agreed that his experience was
helpful.
“Yes unfortunately I’ve got experience but it’s a slightly
different type of injury, with Dmitri it was a joint involved and
the medical staff were mobilising it full time to make it feel
better so he could move. It was kind of manageable. In the
situation with Steve it's muscle and we know it needs 21 days
with aggressive treatment. Hopefully we can bring this time down,
but at this stage we don’t know for sure. It’s only 10 days so I
guess we’ll see.”
With recovery seeming to be ahead of schedule
Parnov now rates his charge at 60-40 to compete.
“I was more pessimistic in the first place, when he said 50-50 I
thought 'no'. But day after day we are just a little bit
ahead of time in the recovery so perhaps his opinion 60 to 40 seems
to be realistic for me right now. But with three days to go we try
to do our best and make sure he has the best chance.”
To watch Steve Hooker's media conference click here.
To watch Alex Parnov's interview
click here.
In other Australian Flame news, AIS athlete Chris Erickson has been forced to withdraw from the 50km race walk on Friday suffering appendicitis and underwent surgery last night in Berlin. Chris will remain hospitalised in Berlin for a few days while he recovers before returning to the team hotel and flying back to Australia.
It’s a huge blow for the Canberra-based athlete, who was in great shape after an outstanding year in which he recorded a personal best time of 1:22.53 at the IAAF World Race Walking Challenge in Wuxi, China, for 12th place.
High Performance Manager Eric Hollingsworth said: “I am so disappointed for Chris, he’s been in good shape and was really ready to race. It’s just one of those unfortunate medical things that no one could predict and that happens at the wrong time. The most important thing is that he gets it fixed and is healthy again, so that’s what we are concentrating on.”
Olympic silver medallist Jared Tallent and Luke Adams, who took 10th place in this event in Beijing, will represent Australia in the 50km race on Friday.
The 12th IAAF championships continues this evening Berlin time with the semi-finals of the 1500m featuring young Victorian Jeff Riseley and the final of the 10,000m, where Australian Flame representatives Collis Birmingham and David McNeill will make their debut.
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