Hartwig Mistimes His Leap, Fails Bar Exam

Jeff Hartwig can see clearly now, laser surgery having solved the contact lens problem that caused him to flinch at the 2000 U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

And what are those numbers his new and improved eyes are detecting today, if not quite believing?

0 for 6.

Six attempts to clear a height in the pole vault in two U.S. Olympic track and field trials at Sacramento State, zero successes.

Four years ago, it was the contact lenses, which dried up on Hartwig in the Sacramento wind, fell out and left Hartwig, then the reigning U.S. champion, squinting at a blurred runway, never the best conditions for anyone attempting flight.

Friday, it was the clock, which ran out on Hartwig as he readied for his third and final attempt at the qualifying height of 18 feet 1/2 inch. Hartwig protested, insisting he be allowed a provisional jump while the controversy was being settled. USA Track & Field, being USA Track & Field, insisted Hartwig first fill out the requisite paperwork.

About 20 minutes later, the ink on the protest forms was dry, but Hartwig’s legs were cold. He failed again at 18-0 1/2 and was done, unable to qualify for the final 12 that will compete Sunday for three spots on the U.S. Olympic team.

“This is par for the course for me and these kinds of meets,” said Hartwig, a four-time U.S. champion. “I’m absolutely in shock.”

Hartwig claimed he was shorted on his time allotment for his third jump. Vaulters are given one minute for each attempt, and with 15 seconds left, a track official raises a yellow warning flag. Hartwig believes he received closer to eight seconds after the yellow flag.

“On my third attempt, I stopped short of taking off because the wind hit me,” he said. “As I started to go back down the runway to restart my run, I asked how much time I had and was told 12 seconds.

“I ran to the back of the runway and grabbed a [lighter] pole because I was tired. As I picked the pole up, the official at the pit raised the red flag, and stepped on the runway, indicating my time was out.”

Hartwig said several spectators “told me from the time the yellow flag went up I was given somewhere in the neighborhood of eight seconds.”

Hartwig told officials he wanted to protest. The officials told him he’d have to fill out some forms.

“By rules, I should have been able to jump immediately,” Hartwig said. “I waited some 20 minutes. I had to file the protest myself at the protest table and leave the stadium. They came up and they took the stands down, they took all the markers away, they took all the marks off the runway. I actually had to come back out and put my marks [back] on the runway....

“I’m walking around, I’ve got my spikes on, I’m walking on the asphalt trying to fill out a protest form, not knowing whether I’m going to get to jump or not. And all of a sudden, they say, ‘OK, you have one jump.’ ”

By then, Hartwig said, “I definitely had sat around too long.”

Current world leader Toby Stevenson, one of 12 vaulters who qualified for Sunday’s final, had mixed emotions about Hartwig’s dismissal.

“My heart goes out to him; he’s a great competitor,” Stevenson said. “Am I relieved that he’s out? Yeah.”

Officials eventually denied Hartwig’s protest, making his provisional jump moot. Even if he had cleared the bar, it would not have been allowed.

Hartwig qualified for the 1996 Olympics, where he finished 11th. A reporter asked him if he felt “snakebit” in Sacramento.

“Hey, I love snakes,” he replied with a smile. “I’ve never been snakebit. Snake bites are not a bad deal. I raise snakes.”

He wasn’t kidding. Hartwig and his wife Karol raise pythons and boa constrictors to sell to pet stores. According to his biography in the U.S. track and field media guide, the Hartwig household has six dogs ... and more than 100 snakes.

Snakes are easy. For one, they have no arms, so they can’t raise any troublesome yellow or red flags in the air.

“The pole vault is so much timing and focus and everything,” Hartwig said. “When something like that happens it really takes you out of your rhythm. And it’s hard to deal with. I’ve probably never been the strongest in dealing with circumstances like that. But it’s unfortunate something like that has to happen now.”