06.10.2009

Hooker looks to top Bubka's best

It’s been six weeks since Steve Hooker’s heroic pole vault victory in Berlin and now the newly-crowned world champion has set his sights on claiming the world record right here on home soil.

Following a well-deserved break after his world titles win, Hooker has returned home ready to take on the world.

And the world record.

For the 27-year-old star, who overcame a torn adductor muscle to snatch victory at the world championships with a clearance of 5.90m in August, the battle of Berlin has left him with the mental edge he needs to surpass Ukrainian great Sergey Bubka’s 15-year mark of 6.14m.

“It was a real battle, it’s not easy what I did (in Berlin) and to be faced with such circumstances and be able to put together three really good jumps I was really, really happy with that,” Hooker said.

“It’s taught me what I need to do mentally to approach an obstacle like that and I think having learnt that and having experienced that is going to be good for me moving forward and attempting big heights and hopefully moving towards a world record, and that mental edge will definitely be helpful.

“There’s a lot of stuff in the future as well that I’m looking forward to in the short to medium term but that’s what it’s all about for me and coming back here the first day I got back my coach Alex Parnox was coaching his daughters down at the track and the conditions are amazing at the new track and I stood there and I just felt like this is a place where it could happen so I want to get healthy and strong and fast and have a real crack at it here in Perth this summer.

“I think it’s as good as any place in the world to jump the world record, it would be great to do it here. I love competing in Perth, I always have and I probably haven’t had as many opportunities as I would’ve liked over the last couple of years to compete here so that’s a real priority over summer.”

Hooker will have that chance in front of a parochial Perth crowd next April when the 88th national championships and selection trials for the 2010 Commonwealth Games travel west to the all-new Western Australian Athletics Centre.

Lingering just eight centimetres below Bubka’s all-time record, Hooker is staring down the barrel of the 1994 world mark and is now fiercely driven by the competitive spirit of his European counterpart.

“Sergey presented me with my medal (in Berlin) but he doesn’t really acknowledge me that much at the moment, he’s still pretty competitive even though he’s retired,” Hooker said.

“I like the fact that he’s got that attitude because it makes me more hungry to break his record and to push up to those heights.

“I guess he was ruthless in the way he competed and he was an athlete so I guess it’s no surprise that perhaps he’s a bit like that when it comes to other pole vaulters, it seems like he doesn’t have much interest in regards to people competing right now and that’s the way he is I guess, it’s a bit of a shock but that’s how it is.”

After time away from the track following his victory in Berlin, Hooker is on the road to recovery ahead of the Australian domestic season and the countdown to next year's Commonwealth Games.

“I’ve done a couple of days of very, very easy training in the last couple of days and I feel pretty good, (the injury) has had the six weeks it needed to heal fully so hopefully that’s the end of it but I’m still going to take it quite easy over the next month and really ease my way back in,” he said.

“It was a grade one tear so it was only extreme because of the lack of time I had before I had to compete, so I think long term it’s not going to pose any problems.

“I think I’m almost at full fitness now but it’s a matter of getting myself strong and fast again and I’ve got to get a really strong preparation in now so that I can lead up to the Australian domestic season and some international competitions overseas.”

And if there's one thing the Olympic and world champion can count on, all of Australia will be cheering him on to that elusive world mark.