Brad Walker of the US clearing 6.04m in Eugene (© Getty Images)
Three men have already sailed over 6 metres this season, Brad Walker of USA (6.04m), Russian Yevgeniy Lukyanenko (6.01m) and Australian Steven Hooker (6.00m) which hopefully encourages us to expect some spicy competition in Beijing.
Of this 6m triumvirate who command the top 11 jumps of this current outdoor season, Walker, the reigning World champion, is the only one to have successfully cleared 6 metres on more than one occasion. His second best (6.00) competition of the year so far came immediately after his 6.04m Area record in Eugene (8 June), while taking the win in Chula Vista (22 June).
Walker’s 6.04m improved Jeff Hartwig’s American record which had been set in 2000 by one centimetre, and his own PB (2006) by four centimetres. That the 27-year-old lost this summer’s US title to Derek Miles was a major surprise. Walker only secured his Beijing flight in the third and last team spot with a below par 5.65m effort, and having just lost his Area record to Walker, 40-year-old Hartwig probably gained immense satisfaction by securing second position (5.70).
USA’s reigning Olympic champion Tim Mack does not make the trip having finished in joint sixth place (5.60) at the Trials.
But over looking that domestic blip, Walker is the man to beat in China, returning to form in his next meet with a 5.90m victory in Athens (13 July). Walker has immense championship experience. The World silver medallist in 2005, he followed that global podium arrival with the World Indoor title the following winter, and won where it counted in 2007 grabbing the World Championship gold and the World Athletics Final title a few weeks later.
Yet in the 22-year-old Russian Yevgeniy Lukyanenko, has the world met the event’s next star? Improving his outdoor personal best by 20cm this year, Lukyanenko’s summer of success has been launched off a winter campaign which was sealed impressively by a 5.90m indoor victory at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia in March; His indoor improvement from the previous season to the end of his 2008 winter campaign, an impressive 30cm.
That Lukyanenko took the World Indoor gold in the process defeating defending champion Walker might eventually be seen as the beginning of the hand over of power between these two men. Yet the pressures involved with winning the Olympics and the world’s premier indoor competition can’t really be compared, and Lukyanenko’s lack of major championship experience (he was sixth in Osaka) could still count in the favour of the American.
The last pre-Beijing salvo between these two men was fired by Lukyanenko in London (26 July) when he beat Walker – 5.97 to 5.72.
In the British capital, the medal hopes of Australian Steve Hooker were also reinforced, as he split this pair when also jumping 5.97, only losing on count-back.
Taking the World Indoor bronze medal behind the Russian and American in Valencia, Hooker has shown this season that he can successfully carry his form – 6.00m PB on 27 January – from the summer of the south hemisphere to that of Europe some six months later. Hooker’s previous PB had been 5.96m when taking a major circuit win in Berlin in 2006, and with a World Cup victory under his belt from that season too, one feels that his ninth place finish at the 2007 World champs in Osaka last summer represents a vast under-valuing of his talent.
The Olympic final should simply come-down to a three-way continental fight - Oceania vs Americas vs Europe – even if this trio cannot replicate their form in the Bird’s Nest.
Australia of course boasts two men with 6m pedigrees, even though Paul ‘Budgie’ Burgess isn’t in the form that took him to such heights in 2005, while the Americas’ as well as the aforementioned other members of the US squad, has another standout name in Mexico’s Giovanni Lanaro (5.80).
Also ‘batting for’ Europe are a huge group which includes: France’s World silver medallist Romain Mesnil (5.71) who is still trying to recapture his best form; World bronze medallist Danny Ecker (5.75) who having come second at his national champs is in the German squad, any of whom could challenge for medals; Ukraine has two diamonds in Denys Yurchenko (5.83) and Maksym Mazuryk (5.82); Igor Pavlov (5.75), the former World and European Indoor champion is another from Russia to look out for.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
