20.10.2009

Hooker the early favourite for coveted prize

Ten days out from the commencement of voting for the third annual Sports Performer Awards, world pole vault champion Steve Hooker has been rated the early favourite to take out the coveted prize.

The awards, hosted by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in conjunction with Colonial First State, have risen to become one of the most prestigious honours in Australian sport, paying tribute to the best sporting performances of the past 12 months.

Unlike most other major awards, the Sports Performer of the Year Awards are voted for by Australian sports fans, giving you the chance to rate Australia’s top performers from across the past year.

Previously awarded to cycling star Cadel Evans (2007) and Olympic diving gold medallist Matthew Mitcham (2008), Hooker is well placed to take out this year’s honour after a scintillating 12 months highlighted by his world title victory in Berlin and earlier this month, his second consecutive Sport Australia Hall of Fame Don Award.
 
A finalist in last year’s awards following his awe-inspiring win at the Beijing Olympics, Hooker will enter this year’s voting period as the early favourite for the major prize.

As The Age chief athletics man Dan Silkstone reports, “the 27-year-old's achievement in the German capital's Olympic stadium in August was so much more than an impressive sporting feat. Hooker must be an early favourite to take out the award this year.

Silkstone, who bore witness to Hooker’s incredible feat live from the stands in Berlin, said that performance alone was worthy of top honours in 2009.

“In Berlin, Hooker took his reputation and his sport to another level, overcoming not just a strong field of competitors but extreme physical adversity,” Silkstone writes.

But it’s not just his incredible fight against adversity that has drawn widespread recognition from the athletics community and sporting public alike.

In February this year the reigning Olympic champion set a new personal best mark and new Oceania and national record in leaping 6.06m at the Boston Indoor Games (USA).

Dominant in the event since his Beijing win, Hooker has cemented himself as one of the two most notable pole vaulters in the history of the event and is hot on the heels of clinching the mantle from Ukrainian great Sergey Bubka.

Voting for the 2009 Sports Performer Awards opens at 9.00AM (AEDST) on Friday, October 30 and closes at 5.00PM (AEDST) on Friday November, 20.

Read more about Hooker in the running for the 2009 Sports Performer Awards here: Heroic Hooker vaults into favouritism

For further information visit www.performerawards.com.au