IAAF Diaries – Steve Hooker

Steve Hooker is heading to the beach twice a day. Perth’s Indian Summer is a good enough reason, but it is a perfect recovery session too.

“Perth this time of year is amazing – cool, fresh mornings and it gets up to about 30 (deg. C) during the day. I go to the beach twice a day between sessions for recovery. At this time of year the sun has still got a bit of kick in it, but the water’s cool and refreshing. It’s my favourite time of year in Perth, I love training over here at this time.

“I’m doing three training sessions a day most days, and around that I’m getting a lot of treatment and massage for the injury I’ve had. My week is very full at the moment with training and all the things associated with it.

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IAAF: Lukyanenko – Surpassing Expectations

Since 22 August last year the world has only really talked about one male pole vaulter Australia’s Steve Hooker who on that day in Beijing rose dramatically with third time clearances at four consecutive heights to an Olympic gold and a peak of 5.96m, a Games’ record.

Hooker’s ascent to stardom halted the meteoric rise of Russia’s now 24-year-old Yevgeniy Lukyanenko, who battled with the Australian up to 5.85m, a ceiling at which he had to be satisfied with the silver.

Until the Beijing final it had been Lukyanenko, who a few weeks before the Olympics had soared to a PB of 6.01m in Bydgoszcz (1 July), who had been the surprise vaulting package of 2008.

Nobody had expected Lukyanenko to win at the 2008 World Indoor Championships in Valencia. Before that competition his best major championship achievement had been a promising 6th place at the World Championships in Osaka the previous summer.

After his sudden success in Valencia when he beat 2007 World champion Brad Walker (silver) and Hooker (bronze), Lukyanenko confessed that he hadn’t believed in victory though he had got himself really concentrated on achieving a place – though not the highest – on the podium.

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Pole vaulter dashes naked through streets of Paris to attract new sponsor

As the global economic downturn begins to impact on the world of sport, one French athlete has come up with an unusual way to try to secure a new sponsorship deal. Pole-vaulting champion Romain Mesnil, whose contract with the sports brand Nike was not renewed when it expired last year, has run naked with his pole through the streets of Paris and posted a video of his caper online.

The musclebound 31-year-old is seen loping through the streets with his pole as if preparing for a vault at tourist spots like Montmartre and the Pont des Arts across the river Seine. A black square has been tactfully added to the footage to cover his private parts.

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Steven Hooker back to the where it all started from

A month after making his first Olympic team in 2004, Steve Hooker competed in the Australian club championships, doing the 200, 400, high jump and 4×100 for his club, Box Hill. He tells us what his club and first vault coach mean to him and why, two days before the Melbourne World Athletics Tour event, he was back.

“I was there for a fund-raising event. The people who went were there because they were helping the club.

“Box Hill Athletic Club has got probably the most-used pole vault facility in Australia. Two or three groups jump on the bags every day, so they get worn out pretty quickly. It’s all funded by the club and the people involved.

“I’ve always had a strong club connection. Box Hill provided a good training environment, with a pole vault facility and weight-training room which you got to use as part of your membership. It was a good environment for training to an elite level.

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Interview with Pole Vaulter and American Record Holder Brad Walker

His career has largely been under the radar, but as Brad Walker proved with his clutch vault at the Prefontaine Classic, the face of the U.S. pole vaulting can fly high with the best of ‘em.

PreRaceJitters.com had the chance to catch up with the American record holder to discuss pole vaulting and his goals for the 2009 season.

Here is what Olympian Brad Walker had to say:

PRJ: Tell us the feeling you get when you step onto the runway?

BW: Normally, the opening bar of the meet is the toughest. After warm-ups, I usually have to wait for a little while and end up cooling down a bit. But when I step onto the runway, I am just focused on a few technical cues. This normally helps to calm down the nerves and get me into meet mode.

PRJ: Is it tough to deal with the physical nature of pole vaulting?

BW: Yep. Pole Vaulting takes a toll on the body. Many vaulters including myself have shoulder issues, back issues, lower leg issues etc. We are a pretty unilateral event and over time our bodies have trouble keeping up. Achilles issues and back issues have ended a number of careers.

PRJ: How old were you when you first picked up a pole and started vaulting competitively?

BW: I guess technically it was seventh grade. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t high, but I was jumping around 8 ft in meets as a seventh grader.

PRJ: Did you have any role models growing up?

BW: I was big into football and track but never really remember a time where I was like, “man I wanna be like that guy.” I was always inspired by top athletes of any sport…Jordan, Montana, Rice, Bubka, all guys that I looked up to.

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Erica Bartolina: The One-Eyed Pole Vaulter

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US pole vaulter Erica Bartolina cleared a personal best of 4.55m to finish third at the 2008 US Championships. She spoke to spikesmag.com about how she has overcome the loss of an eye to be one of her country’s top vaulters.

How did you lose the sight in your eye?
I lost my eye when I was four months old in a car accident. There were scissors on the dashboard of the pick up… it was pretty traumatic. So the message is: don’t put scissors on the dash [laughs]. My family have always been really good about making it as normal as possible. They didn’t keep me from doing anything or overly protect me. I couldn’t throw or catch very well, but why practise something you are not going to be very good at anyway? I was raised on a farm and I really didn’t have any athletic background to speak of before high school.

How did you get into the pole vault?
I started in high school. I was more of a distance runner but I decided to do some pole vaulting and after that running just didn’t seem that exciting. I was a little adventurous. I like to take some risks and do things that other people don’t tend to do. I was pretty strong and pretty fast and that’s what you need if you are going to clear nine feet to begin with. I just learnt from there.

What are the main difficulties you have to overcome as a one-eyed pole vaulter?
With my natural upper body strength I was told I would be great for the pole vault and then people will say, ‘oh no, wait, you’ve only got one eye.’ At that point I was already excited about doing the event and then I had to fight for it. Without having ever done it I said: ‘there’s no reason why I can’t do it’. I think I probably had a different learning curve than most people.

I used to run with the pole over my head for the first three steps but I don’t think in reality there was that much of a difference between how I learned it and how other people learned it. It was a lot easier for me to pole vault than to catch something coming at me. The [plant] box stays in the same place, so it’s easier for me than something flying at me that I have to judge. I have to be a little more consistent because some people can tell the distance [to the plant box] a lot more and adjust their steps on the runway.

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This Isinbayeva article from BBC Sport has garnered some attention on the Pole Vault Power Message Boards.
Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva has spoken out against the new rules about athletes being available for drug testing. This

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules say athletes on the national testing register must be available for an hour a day three months in advance.

“It’s impossible to know where we’ll be next week or next month,” she said.

“We are not magical that we will know where we will be in two months – this is unfair, it does not work.”

Lolo Jones would rather wear a tracking device!!!
“Maybe in the future they will find a tag they can put on us like dogs have. I’d rather wear a necklace that’s a homing device,” said Jones, who won the 60m hurdles at the Birmingham Indoor meeting on Saturday.

“Or I would like it if they used the new thing on Google where they can track you through your phone,” the American added. “They can just track me like the police and get rid of all the paperwork. As long as I have my phone on me, they know where I am at all times.”

A Few More Articles on the Anti-Doping Regulations
Why Baseball Is in Denial
Edwin Moses On The Difference In Attitudes Towards Drugs Between Major Pro Sports And Track & Field

Footballers will struggle with anti-doping regulations, says Ohuruogu

So… What do you think? Is this the price to pay for being a professional athlete or it is too intrusive?

THE great man has spoken.

Sergey Bubka, the undisputed king of the pole vault, has declared that Australia’s Steve Hooker has what it takes to break the world record of 6.15m he set in his Ukraine homeland in 1993.

Speaking from Donetsk, where he honed the vaulting skills that saw him rule the event from the early 1980s to the late 90s, Bubka said he would not be upset if Hooker wiped his mark from the record books.

“I finished as an athlete a long time ago. It is important for the pole vault that we now have among the men a strong athlete who can try to set up records,” Bubka told The Australian.

“Steve has already achieved the second-best result in history. His results show he has good technique, and the skills and ability to jump over six metres consistently.

“I am ready for the day — it is normal that there will be someone better than me.”

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