At the absolute height of his powers a couple of years ago, Steve Hooker became the first athlete in history to hold the big five major track and field titles at the same time.
Now fellow Australian Sally Pearson is at short odds to go one step closer to matching Hooker’s remarkable record at this weekend’s world indoor championships in Istanbul.
Already the world and Commonwealth 100m hurdles champion, Pearson is the red-hot favourite in the equivalent indoor event over 60m, despite it being only her second competition under a roof.
“My start is one of the best assets of my race, so I guess the 60m hurdles should be ideal for me,” said Pearson.
“If all goes well, I should be able to cross the line in a 7.70 sort of time which is quite exciting because the world record is only 7.68 (set by Swede Susanna Kallur in 2008).”
Pearson’s toughest competition is likely to come from Britain’s Tiffany Porter and American Kristi Castlin, who clocked 7.84 in winning the US indoor title last month.
If the Australian can claim the world indoor title in Istanbul, she will then need to win gold at the London Olympics and the 2014 Continental Cup in Marrakesh to match Hooker’s remarkable five-title feat.
Fresh from claiming the 100m and 200m flat double at last weekend’s Australian Olympic trials – along with her customary demolition job in the 100m hurdles – the 25-year-old Pearson has also entered the 60m sprint at the world indoors.
The favourite for that event is Jamaican star Veronica Campbell-Brown, the reigning Olympic and world 200m champion.
Craig Mottram will arrive in Turkey in an ebullient mood, having booked his spot in a fourth successive Olympic team with victory in the 5000m in the trials.
Mottram will be contesting the 3000m at the world indoors, a non-Olympic distance where he has often excelled.
Also on the start-line will be US superstar Bernard Lagat and Britain’s Mo Farah.
Having set a recent national record of 4.76m in Perth, Alana Boyd will confront a world-class field in Istanbul.
Topping the bill is three-time world indoor pole vault champ Yelena Isinbayeva, who recently beat her own world mark with 5.01m and is unbeaten in 2012.
Boyd will also come up against American Jenny Suhr and the fast-improving Holly Bleasdale from Britain, who has already extended her personal best by 37cm to 4.87m in 2012.
The remarkably swift rise of Henry Frayne will continue in Istanbul where he is entered to contest the long and triple jumps, the same double he will be tackling at the London Olympics.
The other members of the six-strong Australian team for the March 9-11 championships are shot putter Dale Stevenson and young 800m runner Ryan Foster.
