Tim Mack qualified to Sunday’s finals in men’s pole vault at the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on Friday night. Mack, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist in Athens, cleared 18 feet, 1/2 inch during Friday’s qualifying round.
The 35-year-old Westlake native cleared that height in his only attempt of the preliminaries, and is in a 13-way tie for second place.
South Dakota’s Brad Walker, 27, leads the field with a mark of 18-41/2. He also cleared his only attempt of the evening.
“It was good. The goal was to take as few jumps as possible and be ready to go on Sunday,” said Walker, who holds the U.S. record at
19-93/4. “The crowd is great. I jumped an American record here a couple weeks ago, so I think they remember that. The fans are very supportive.”
Twenty of the field’s 26 entrants advanced to the final.
In preliminaries for other events, 2000 Olympic gold medalist Angelo Taylor and reigning world champion Kerron Clement advanced in the 400-meter hurdles, Chryste Gaines, back from her BALCO-related suspension, qualified for the
100-meter quarterfinals and Allyson Felix, hoping to compete in four events in China, won her heat in 11.01, overcoming a relatively slow start to accelerate past the field in the final 50 meters.
“It feels good to get it started, but it could’ve been a lot better,” Felix said.
Contact Paul Heyse at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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