09.10.2009

Hooker soars to new heights on sport's night of nights

Australian Flame athlete Steve Hooker has been recognised for his remarkable effort in defying a serious leg injury to claim the world pole vault title by becoming the first sportsperson to win the Don Award for the second time.

Hooker won the award at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame (SAHOF) function last night as the Australian athlete whose performance in the previous 12 months had the capacity to most inspire the nation.

Hooker, 27, seemed certain to be forced out of the world championships in Berlin in August when he tore his adductor muscle and suffered a neural problem in his thigh in a training mishap 12 days before the final.

But - in conjunction with coach Alex Parnov - he developed a high-risk strategy, taking only one jump in the qualifying round.

Parnov and team medical staff then advised Hooker not to contest the final, fearful he would aggravate the groin injury.

But he decided to press on, despite being unable to do any run-throughs or practice jumps.

He narrowly missed his first attempt in the final at 5.85m, before deciding he had one more jump in him.

Defying the pain he then went over at 5.90m, which proved good enough to win the world title.

No other vaulter had ever entered an Olympic or world final at such a height and gone on to claim the gold medal.

"I don't know how I did it, it is very difficult to explain," Hooker said in Berlin.

"It's a mental battle you have to fight with yourself and you have to convince yourself that you are ready, that you are ready to pick up a massive competition pole that is going to throw you nearly six metres in the air.

"... It has been a very, very challenging couple of weeks ... it has been a roller-coaster and every day it was a question of whether I would jump or not. "

On February 7 this year Hooker cleared 6.06m at the Boston Indoor Games (USA) to set a new personal best mark and new Oceania and national record. He has cleared the coveted 6m-mark on two other occasions in 2009, at the Millrose Games (USA) in January and the Paris Indoors (FRA) in February.

Following wins at both the Sydney Track Classic and World Athletics Tour Melbourne, Hooker was named Athletics Australia's Athlete of the Year  for the 2008/09 domestic season and International Athlete of the Year by Athletics International.

In 2008 Hooker shared the Don Award - named in honour of cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman - with diver Matthew Mitcham, after he won the Olympic pole vault title in Beijing having four times cleared the bar at his third and final attempt.

The five other finalists for this year's award were world champion discus thrower Dani Samuels, tennis comeback star Jelena Dokic, legendary horse trainer Bart Cummings, Formula One driver Mark Webber and swimmer Jessicah Schipper.

The SAHOF has been awarding the Don Award since 1998.

Track and field athletes have dominated the honour roll, with previous winners including marathon runners Heather Turland (1998) and Kerryn McCann (2006), Olympic 400m champion Catherine Freeman (2000) and Hooker in 2008.

Hooker said his next target was to better the world record of 6.14m set by the great Sergey Bubka.

"That's what I'm aiming for now," he said on Thursday.

"In the last two years I've ticked off two massive goals off my list and now it's all really about seeing how high I can jump."

In a gala function at Crown Palladium, eight sportspeople were inducted into the SAHOF - Peter Montgomery (water polo), Kevin Sheedy (AFL), Luc Longley (basketball), Simon Fairweather (archery), Michael Doohan (motorcycle racing), George Gregan (rugby), Liz Ellis (netball) and Shane Warne (cricket).

And the late Edwin Flack, who won gold in the 800m and the 1500m at the 1896 Athens Olympics, and tennis legend Ken Rosewall were recognised as the 29th and 30th legends of the SAHOF.

On a big night for Australian athletics, rising track and field stars Ryan Gregson (middle distance) and Blake Lucas (pole vault) were awarded SAHOF scholarships.

Gregson has turned on an impressive 2009 that has seen new personal best times over 800m, 1500m, the mile, 3000m and 5000m added to his resume. The 3000m national record-holder placed fifth over 1500m at the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia, in July, and 34th over the same distance at the world championships in Berlin. In March he was named Athletics International's Emerging Athlete of the Year.

The 19-year-old joins Lucas, also 19, who in March claimed the national pole vault title with a new personal best height of 5.45m and went on to place ninth in the pole vault at the World University Games, as SAHOF scholarship recipients for 2009.

With AAP