Hooker Continues Injury Rehab
WAIS pole vaulter Steve Hooker has rated himself a 60% chance of lining up in the qualifying of the men’s pole vault competition at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Thursday as his injury rehabilitation continues.
The Olympic Champion tore an adductor muscle whilst training at the pre-Worlds camp in Cologne last week and has been a 50/50 proposition to compete since. His prognosis has improved slightly over the past 48 hours, with the intense treatment program under the guidance of WAIS pole vault coach Alex Parnov and Australian team medical staff proving helpful.
“The situation is moving forward as well as it possibly could,” Hooker told athletics.com.au in Berlin.
“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.”
Despite being eager to pair his Olympic gold medal with a World Championship title the Australian Flame Captain will be taking into account his long term future when making the decision whether to take to the runway or not.
“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.
“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’s first jump will be Thursday morning, with his training limited to gymnastics sessions and run throughs. Despite this he will take some confidence from the record of his coach Parnov, who guided former WAIS vaulter Dimitri Markov to a World Title in 2001 after he suffered a serious injury just prior to the competition in Canada.
“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 ten 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.”