Steve Hooker and Russian Sprint Girlfriend Steve Hooker and Russian Sprint Girlfriend. Images: Getty Images

Sergei Bubka’s world record in your event is 6.14m. Is the world record a realistic goal for you? 

Sure, but it’s not entirely the same. If you look at results of pole vault over the decade, you’ll see the rule changes’ impact. Results were very strong all the way through the ‘90s, then the rule changes came in post-Sydney 2000, and results dropped. People can say you have to “clear” the bar to clear the bar, but what the rule change did was remove a small element of luck from the event. For me, one of the most exciting moments in a pole vault event had been seeing the guy knock a bar, it bounces and stays on. That’s an exciting element you hardly see any more. Now if you touch it at all, it’ll fall off.

Your coach Alex Parnov was a contemporary and rival of Bubka back in the former USSR. Is he among the people cheering you on to beat the record? 

Everyone is keen to see that record go down. It was 1994 when Bubka’s record was set, which is time enough. There are a lot of guys getting up to that level, working out how to consistently get to those heights. And with me are a lot of young guys who have essentially been jumping all their careers with the short pegs, so it’s not an adjustment they’ve had to make. Everyone wants to see the record go down and the sport progress. Bubka will always be the greatest pole vaulter that’s lived, whether he holds the world record or not. We all want to see progress.

Your girlfriend, Russian 800m runner Ekaterina Kostetskaya, is training with you in Perth. Given both your travel schedules, it must be nice to have some steady time together ...

It’s still a fairly fresh relationship. We’ve been seeing each other consistently since June. She’s training here in Australia with me for a couple of months, so she gets to see where I live and meet my family. It’s been really good.

You’re a native Victorian who now calls Perth home. They recently opened the new WA Athletics Stadium. Have you been able to check it out?

I was there at its official opening. It’s going to be an unbelievable place to pole vault. I can’t wait. I’ll be jumping hopefully through the summer months, assuming I’m healthy. The stadium will host the Aussie champs in April, which are after the World Indoor Championships (in Doha in March). We’ll contest some low-key club events there before that.

Whether it’s a club meet or world champs or anything in Perth, you have an opportunity to jump high because the conditions are so good. My first six-metre jump was in a club competition at the old Perry Lakes Stadium.

Both your Mum and Dad represented Australia in athletics. (Erica was a 1972 Olympian and 1978 Commonwealth Games silver medallist in long jump; Bill raced the 800m and 4x400m at the 1974 Comm Games.) Have they been around for your biggest wins?

I’m one of four kids, so they have a few of us to worry about. Mum and Dad didn’t go to Beijing, but they were in Berlin. They prefer the World Championships, which is less of a circus than the Olympics, and they like it when the focus is just on athletics.

Berlin really was just a fantastic event. It was the best crowd you could wish for, an amazing stadium to compete in, even the mascot was the best mascot you could’ve hoped to find. I look back and it was all just such great stuff.

– Travis Cranley