Hooker Grounded in Daegu
WAIS athlete Steve Hooker has missed out on qualifying for the men’s pole vault final at the IAAF World Championships in Korea, after failing to clear at 5.50m.
Hooker had gone into the meet as reigning world champion following his success in Berlin two years ago, but after an injury interrupted preparation and a change to his technique, Hooker was unable to get to grips with his three attempts at the qualifying mark, with each attempt boycotted on run through.
Not one athlete in the pole vault was required to attempt the automatic qualifying mark of 5.70m, with eight through on 5.65m, including Frenchmen Renaud Lavillenie and Romain Mesnil, and a further three on 5.60m.
However, Hooker entered and failed to clear 5.50m, a height which was enough for five men to make the final, including Pawel Wojciechowski (POL), who only two weeks ago cleared a world-lead of 5.91m.
Hooker admitted post qualification that he hadn’t felt at his best on the competition runway, despite being fully recovered from his early season knee complaint.
“I was not feeling good on the run-up today, but physically I think I am in good shape, which is very important to me. The last two years I was ending the season injured,” he said.
“Practically, this is the end of the season for me and I will have a rest, take a mental break and will get back to training.”
“Mentally it wasn’t there, I had no confidence in what I was doing out there, I felt kind of lost on the runway. It’s tough to take off and tough to get jumps done when you’re in that way.”
“I had a very rushed preparation this year, I didn’t do anywhere near as many jumps in training as I would normally do before a season and only two competitions.
“There’s no excuses for what happened today, three run throughs at 5.50 at world champs is not on, I would expect more from myself than that. It’s disappointing that it happened that way, especially with 5.50 getting through to the final,” he said.
“If I have to take a positive out of it it’s that I’m healthy so finishing the year healthy, it’s the first time I’ve done that since 2008 which means I’m going to get an early start on my preparation for next year and get the jumps in that I missed this year.”
Hooker however, was not the only world champion to miss out, after Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt was disqualified from the men’s 100m sprint final when he broke the gun. There was also disappointment for another Australian World Champion, after Dani Samuels finished tenth in the final of the women’s discus, whilst in the women’s pole vault, WAIS athlete Alana Boyd was unable to qualify for the final.
Boyd did however, give it more than a fair go, after showing plenty of fight with clearances at 4.25m, 4.40m and 4.50m before stumbling at 4.55m. Unluckily, she missed the final by one place on count back.
Even the frustration of missing the final by such a close margin couldn’t dent Boyd’s confidence though, as the Commonwealth champion looks ahead to an even bigger competition.
“It was nice to have some good jumps today but unfortunately it just wasn’t quite enough,” Boyd said.
“I know that with more work I can jump higher and be a better athlete for the Australian domestic season and the London Olympics.”
-with Athletics Australia