Unread postby Pogo Stick » Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:25 pm
[url]http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/brave-leap-could-end-hookers-title-hopes-20090821-es7u.html
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Brave leap could end Hooker's title hopes
Dan Silkstone
August 21, 2009 - 12:38AM
HE SHOWED up, warmed up, and did what he had to do - securing a place in the world championships final despite the injury that has kept him from training for the past 10 days - but the news was not all good for Steve Hooker in Berlin.
The Australian had planned a death or glory strategy on Thursday, skipping the early stages to protect his damaged right thigh and staking it all on a single jump of 5.65 metres that he expected would be enough to qualify. He believed he only had one attempt in him, and it turned out he was right. Hooker ran down the runway, planted his pole and cleared the 5.65m needed to get him through to the final on Sunday morning, Sydney time.
But the flush of relief did not last long. As soon as he landed, the Australian knew he was in trouble, grimacing and clutching at the upper right thigh he had injured 10 days before. He limped from the mat and immediately sought treatment. ''It wasn't great fun,'' he said afterwards. ''I felt it straining down the runway. I don't know if anything happened once I got off the ground. It's all a bit of a blur.''
Yesterday's performance under duress has bought him time. Hooker now has an additional 56 hours to rest, recover, heal and hope. He will be hoping his qualifying effort did not worsen the slowly recovering muscle tear.
Will he be fit? ''It's hard to say,'' he said afterwards, ''I really don't know. I had to shut it down to give myself any chance of competing in two days. Hopefully, I can but I think things have to go well.''
Should he take his place in the final, the Australian will again know that his body cannot cope with more than one or two attempts to clear the bar.
The strategy will be the same as it was yesterday: stake it all on the first jump - setting the bar high enough to win a medal - and hope for the best.
He does not believe that medal is likely to be the same colour as the one he won in Beijing. ''I think potentially at these championships the gold is out of my reach,'' he said.
Aside from the injury, his form is promising. He cleared 5.65m with ease, one of 11 men to do so en route to the final. ''It was a good jump,'' he said. ''I'm jumping well.''
The man expected to provide Hooker's chief opposition, emerging French star Renaud Lavillenie, was an early leader with a jump of 5.55m.
Viktor Chistiakov - formerly married to Tatiana Grigorieva and competing for Australia but now back in Russia's colours - also cleared the mark, as did American hope Derek Miles. A total of 17 men made it past that height.
Hooker needed some to stumble at the next level and for his own body to hold out if he was to make it into the final 12. Lavillenie - who has the highest outdoor jump in the world this year with 6.01m - cleared 5.65m. German Alexander Straub joined him at that height shortly after. Britain's Steve Lewis did the same, as did several others.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
-- Pogo
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." W. Edwards Deming
