ATHLETICS: Defending Olympic pole vault champion Steve Hooker is relaxed about his preparation after re-discovering his competition form with a return to the podium at the Kusoc Szczecin Meet in Poland earlier this week.

Hooker cleared a season-best 5.72 metres to finish third behind Steven Lewis (Great Britain) and Brad Walker (USA), but more importantly gained some confidence after an indifferent lead up to the defence of his 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medal. “It shows where I’m at and where I feel I’ve been at for the last month,” Hooker said. 

“It was the best I have jumped in a few years and I started to feel like I did a few years ago.

“It was good to get it out. It re-confirmed to me that those poles would be right and that gives me confidence going into the qualifying rounds.

“I have been training well. I’ve just been getting to competition in difficult conditions and not put it together.”

The 30-year-old, who becomes a triple Olympian in London, also believes that the men’s pole vault competition in London is wide open as a cluster of athletes have been unable to grab outright favouritism throughout 2012.

“It’s pretty open,” Hooker said when asked about his chances of defending his Olympic title. “Once you get into the final it’s anyone’s race. I have to get into the final and then anything can happen.”

Hooker also revealed he would speak with former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, who is an Australian Olympic Committee Athlete Liaison Officer (ALO) with the Olympic Team in London.

“I’d love to sit down with Steve Waugh when we get to London,” Hooker said. “He is like a Dad. You can sit down and have an open conversation with him knowing he has achieved a lot in sport. He’s been in form and out of form.”

Hooker also had some advice for long jump medal contender Mitchell Watt, who sat side-by-side with Hooker, Dani Samuels and Henry Frayne at the athletics team’s training base in Tonbridge, an hour south of London.

“I basically said to Mitchell ‘You are in good enough shape. Just don’t make any mistakes. If you do that you’re in good enough shape to go and win this.”

The pole vault competition begins with the preliminary rounds on Day 12.

Dave Mason in Tonbridge

Olympics.com.au