200 METERS
STEVE Hooker's pursuit of legend Sergey Bubka's pole vault world record has placed his world title defence in jeopardy.
In a calculated risk during his injury-enforced lay-off over the Australian summer, Hooker made significant technical changes, including changing poles, which leaves him vulnerable at the world athletic championships in South Korea, starting on Saturday.
The Olympic champion has had only two competitions using his new set-up leading into Daegu with a best performance of 5.60m - well outside his personal best of 6.06m.
"The technical changes were done so I can jump as high as I possibly can," Hooker said. "And then the equipment change happened because I thought that was the best equipment to go with what I was doing technically. I've gone from jumping on a carbon-based pole to a fibreglass-based pole, so I've actually gone to older technology, which is what the world record was jumped on.
"The biggest challenge for me is the runway. Carrying a heavier pole means you have to be a lot more precise with your run and pole drop.
It means if you make a mistake and drop the pole a bit early it just absolutely kills your run.
"That's the unknown for me. I'm really happy with what I'm doing off the ground technically so the runway is the big variable for me."
Bubka's world record mark of 6.15m has stood since 1993 with Hooker moving into second on the all-time list when he cleared 6.06m at the Boston Indoor Games in February 2009.
Despite his unorthodox preparation, Australia's team captain knows in the heat of competition he will be thinking gold medal not the world record:
"I can be philosophical about it right now but when you get out there it's the world championships," Hooker said. "At the time you're not thinking about London (next year)."
