Mack advances to pole vault finals

By MIKE PRATER

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - Timothy Mack had bad timing Wednesday night, but his trusty little notebook salvaged the situation.

The pole vaulter from Knoxville, Tenn., qualified for the Olympic finals, along with fellow Americans Derek Miles and Toby Stevenson. They will be among 16 vaulters in the Friday night final, all of whom cleared 18 feet, 8 1/4 inches in qualifying.

Mack, 31, had one stumbling block on an otherwise smooth night.

Just as he was about to take his first crack at 18-8 1/4, Fani Halkia of Greece turned sold-out Olympic Stadium into her own personal party by winning the 400-meter hurdles.

``When that Greek girl ran that 400, that was beyond what I could ever imagine. ... That went on forever. That went on for like 15 minutes, and I got a little excited,'' Mack said.

Here's the problem: The usually cool Mack, a tactical vaulter who keeps a notebook to chart everything he does, said he lost control of his game plan.

``I thought to myself, `I'm going to use some of this energy,' and I got a little too fast and a little too early in my jump, and that's not good in the pole vault,'' he said.

And so he missed, badly, sending the bar flying with his leg on the way up.

``That miss rattled me a little bit,'' he said.

It was his first miss of the night after easily clearing 18-0 1/2 and 18-4 1/2.

Fortunately for Mack, he had that notebook in his backpack, and it's full of numbers, heights and specifics about each of his poles. The U.S. Trials champion and former NCAA champion at Tennessee went to the book after the miss and jumped back on his game plan.

He nailed his next attempt.

``I'm not going to lie. After that first miss, I thought about the possibility that I might not make it,'' he said. ``That second jump was kind of a blind jump. I was just going with the numbers, with what I had on paper, and it worked out for me.''

Not bad composure for a guy making his Olympic debut.

Now the trick is to compete even harder in Friday's finals, where he'll have plenty of American company. Stevenson assured his spot in the finals by clearing his first attempt at 18-8 1/4, while Miles sweated it out and cleared on his third attempt.

Stevenson (19-8 1/4) and Mack (19-4 1/4) have the two highest vaults in the world this season.

``I'm pumped that all three Americans are in there, because we can go into the final with just a little bit more energy within ourselves, and that helps when you have a team out there,'' Mack said.

He said there would be no significant changes to his game plan, or nothing new to add to his book.

``I just need to get recovered and drink a lot of Gatorade and get some rest. Other than that, there's nothing I really need to do, which is a good place to be. I don't feel behind,'' he said.