Sydney 21°C - 28°C . Sunny.
Steve Hooker pipped by Frenchman in rankings
• Mike Hurst
• From: The Daily Telegraph
• January 22, 2011 12:00AM
The Daily Telegraph
EIGHT Australian athletes have received prestigious world merit rankings from the authoritative US journal Track & Field News for 2010, but not even Steve Hooker climbed to No. 1.
The Perth-based pole vaulter, who has won every championship open to an Australian, was relegated to second place behind Renaud Lavillenie, 24, a Frenchman who shapes as the major threat to Hooker’s ambitions of defending his world title in Daegu, Korea this year and his Olympic title in London next year.
Hooker won the World Indoor Championship, Continental Cup and Commonwealth Games in 2010, and notched the top outdoor (5.95m) and indoor (6.00m) performances of the year. But T&FN, the so-called Bible of athletics since 1948, anointed Lavillenie as top dog in the new vault wars.
“It wasn’t really a surprise to me [to be ranked second],” Hooker told The Daily Telegraph. "The rankings don’t look kindly to ‘no-heights’ [failing to clear any height in a contest] and I had a few of them this season.
"To be ranked second in a year in which things didn’t go so well is nice. My top results are still up there, but my consistency wasn’t there.
“At the moment, this Australian summer, I am just focusing on doing the absolutely ideal preparation. That’s my priority and if I find myself jumping well off a short approach [8-strides] then competing in the Australian championships [in mid-April in Melbourne] is a possibility.”
In a contest which will no doubt be a focus of Australian interest over the next two years, Lavillenie beat Hooker 5-2 in head-to-heads. He also won four Diamond League titles (and was overall winner, claiming the diamond), while Hooker won none.
While Aussie team captain Hooker was philosophical, Sally Pearson - merit ranked No. 2 for 100m hurdles - was elated.
So too Sydney long jumper Fabrice Lapierre (No. 3), discus thrower Dani Samuels (No. 4), Canberra’s 20km walker Jared Tallent (No. 5), Melbourne javelin thrower Jarrod Bannister (No. 8), Newcastle discus thrower Benn Harradine (No. 9) and Wollongong 1500m runner Ryan Gregson (No. 10).
Merit rankings are an acknowledgement of head-to-head results and Pearson’s coach Sharon Hannan said she thought Sally would rank no worse than fourth but had a good claim for No. 2.
“She might not have done a personal best at the majors but she’s performed at her potential at all the majors and above it at the last Olympics [to win silver],” Hannan said.
All the Australians who earned merit rankings won gold at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, except Samuels, who declined to attend, and Gregson, who set the national 1500m record in late July at 3min 31.06sec - fifth fastest in the world for 2010 - but did not race again due to a severe stress fracture in his foot.
“I guess I thought when I was running 3:31 I’d be up there for a ranking, but when I lost the second half of my season in Europe [to injury] I thought you need consistent results to get a top-10 ranking,” said Gregson, at 20, the youngest Australian male runner to be merit ranked since Darren Clark in 1984.
“I guess it means I’m on the right track. If I can get over this injury and learn from it, I can be top 10 for 10 years and hopefully break through and get a medal some day.”
Gregson told The Daily Telegraph his doctor had given him the all clear to resume light running on December 30.
“I haven’t run for four months. It will take a while. I might make an appearance late this season,” Gregson said.
“I might be back for the nationals, but probably only in the 800m.”
Lavillenie and Hooker’s seasons (and who beat them):
Renaud Lavillenie (Fra) 5-mark Avg. = 5.890
5.50i 1)AubiHre 1/16
5.70i 1)Bordeaux 1/24
5.50i 4)Millrose G 1/29 1. Hollis; 2. Miles; 3. Mack
5.70i 4)Stuttgart 2/06 1. Straub; 2t. Holzdeppe; 2t. Chistyakov.
5.85i 1)Fr Ind 2/28
5.71i =1)Paris 3/02
5.73i 1)AubiHre 3/06
5.45i nq)World Ind 3/12 1. Hooker; 2. Mohr; 3. Straub; 4t. Miles; 4t. Filippidis; 6t. Starodubtsev; 6t. Balner; 6t. Lewis; 9. Michalski
5.50 1)Forbach 5/30
5.80 1)Oslo DL 6/04
5.70 1)Montreuil 6/08
5.85 1)New York DL 6/12
5.70 1)Euro Team 6/20
5.82 1)Tomblaine 6/25
5.85 1)Lausanne DL 7/08
5.94 1)Fr Ch 7/10
5.91 1)Paris DL 7/16
5.85 1)Euro Ch 7/31
(5.65q)
nh )London DL 8/13 1. Michalski; 2. Miles; 3. Czerwinski; 4. Walker; 5. Mesnil; 6. Lewis
5.72 1)V-dAscq 8/24
5.80 2)Brussels DL 8/27 1. Mohr
5.90 2)Cont Cup 9/05 1. Hooker
5.80 1)DIcaNation 9/11
5.50 1)VInissieux 10/16
Steve Hooker (Aus) 5-mark Avg. = 5.894
5.40 1)Perth 1/31
5.70 1)Perth 2/07
5.80 1)Perth 2/14
5.91 1)Sydney 2/27
5.65 1)Melbourne 3/04
6.01i 1)World Ind 3/13
(5.60iq)
5.80 1)Aus Ch 4/18
5.50 6)Shanghai DL 5/23 1. Mohr; 2. Gripich; 3. Mazuryk; 4. Gruber; 5. Y. Yang
nh )Oslo DL 6/04 1. Lavillenie; 2. Mohr; 3. Gripich; 4. Balner; 4. Czerwinski; 6. Miles; 7. Mazuryk
5.80 2)New York DL 6/12 1. Lavillenie
5.80 1)Wattenscheid 6/26
5.80 2)Lausanne DL 7/08 1. Lavillenie
nh )Paris DL 7/16 1. Lavillenie; 2. Miles; 3t. Michalski; 3t. Mazuryk; 5. Balner; 6. Czerwinski; 7. Mesnil; 8t. Dossevi; 8t. Lanaro; 8t. Gibilisco; 11. Clavier
5.80 1)Leverkusen 7/28
nh )London DL 8/13 1. Michalski; 2. Miles; 3. Czerwinski; 4. Walker; 5. Mesnil; 6. Lewis
nh )Berlin IWC 8/22 1. Gibilisco; 2. Michalski; 3. Lanaro; 4. Miles; 5. Spiegelburg; 6. Walker; 6. Schulze; 8. Mohr; 9. Scott; 9. Holzdeppe
5.65 =5)Brussels DL 8/27 1. Mohr; 2. Lavillenie; 3. Mazuryk; 4. Schulze
5.95 1)Cont Cup 9/05
nh )Newcastle 9/18 1. Cutts; 2. Lewis
5.60 1)Comm G 10/11