Monday, July 17 U.S. record-holder can't make opening height
	Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- For a track and field athlete in this country, it is the ultimate nightmare. Jeff Hartwig, who just a month ago vaulted higher than anyone in the world this year, a U.S. record of 19 feet, 9¼ inches, couldn't clear the opening height of 18-2½ in three tries in the U.S. Olympic Trials. In the do-or-die competition to determine who makes the U.S. Olympic team, it was a catastrophe. The Olympics, the goal he had been aiming at for so long, will go on without him. "I can't put into words how bad I feel," Hartwig said Saturday, less than 24 hours after he knocked down the bar on his third and final try. "I slept 2½ hours last night. It's a big disappointment because I worked so hard for four years. But I'll go on. The sun wasn't up when I got up this morning, but it did come up." Hartwig, 32, from Jonesboro, Ark., said that blurred vision, compounded by problems with the spacing of his steps as he approached the vault pit, caused his failure. He said he long has had problems with his contact lenses drying up, especially in indoor meets, and that was the case in the dry conditions on the track Friday. "I've got like four different kinds of drops that I carry with me," Hartwig said. "They do a pretty good job of lubricating, but I think sometimes those lubricating solutions are a little gummy or something. Every so often, especially on a dry day where I have to put more drops in, it seems to affect my depth perception a little bit." Depth perception is crucial for a pole vaulter as he tries to firmly plant the base of the pole in the box to begin his jump. "There were certain things he had to do," said Hartwig's coach, former world record-holder Earl Bell. "He had to be aggressive, but he couldn't do it. Depth perception was making it tough for him to hit the box hard. It's like a breaker switch. You have to see what you're doing." To help remedy the problem, Hartwig plans to have laser eye surgery to correct his vision problems at the end of this year. Unlike other events, a pole vaulter can't coast through the qualifying rounds. That's why this event seems to feature more pratfalls than most. For instance, the great Sergey Bubka didn't make an opening height in the 1992 Olympic finals. "Every time you step on the runway in the pole vault, because there's so much timing involved, it's pretty much a full 100 percent effort, whether the bar's at 18 feet or 20 feet, or a qualifying round or a final," Hartwig said. He said he never felt better when he walked onto the track Friday. In his final warmup jump, he cleared 18 feet by about a foot. There was no hint of what was to come. He had failed to make a qualifying height only one other time in the last three years -- last month in Athens, Greece, after a 36-hour flight from Eugene, Ore. When he failed on his third attempt, his close friend and fellow vaulter Nick Hysong was stunned. "I was close to tears," said Hysong, who did make it to Sunday's finals. "It chokes me up. Not having him there, it just doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel like it's the national championship or the Olympic Trials final." Hartwig said it would be hypocritical for him to suggest the system for selecting the U.S. team be changed. He likes the system in Germany, where the team is determined by performances in several meets and other factors but, he said, "I feel if I deserve a spot on the Olympic team and possibly go get a medal, how am I going to beat all the best guys in the world if I can't finish in the top three among the Americans?" Hartwig, who says he "lives and breathes pole vaulting. It's all I do," plans to go back to Europe and compete for a Grand Prix title. He'll be nearly 37 when the next Olympics comes, and he knows that might be too old to make the team. "I'm feeling very healthy and I feel I'm able to jump very high," he said. "That's what makes this the most disappointing. I felt this was my year. Everything had gone perfectly. I'm going to go to Europe and try to redeem myself a little bit, if not anybody else's eyes, at least in mine."		ALSO SEE Jones, Greene win 100m heats at Olympic trials U.S. Track and Field trials results, Day 1 Pole vaulter snakes his way to top