At 5:40 a.m. Pacific/8:40 a.m. Eastern today Jeff Hartwig, our 40-year-old masters superstar, jumps in the men’s vault prelims in Beijing. Earliest results and discussion will be on Becca Gillespy’s site. Jeff says in a recent story that “If I thought I could go 10 more years, I would. I love the sport that much.” But in another article, he signals that he’ll retire in September. Today’s event will be a challenge. They’re taking anyone to Friday’s finals who jumps 5.75 (18-10 1/2) — or the top 12. Jeff has a season best of 5.71 — the M40 world record, of course.

Also send positive vibes for Joy Upshaw-Margerum’s sister Grace, who competes Friday in the women’s long jump final. Check out this story on Grace and Joy.
Here are the stories, in case the links go bye-bye:

40-year-old vaulter not slowing down
By John Meyer
The Denver Post
BEIJING — Jeff Hartwig is the oldest man in the pole-vault field here and the oldest person on the U.S. Olympic track-and-field team, but he’ll keep flying as long as he’s able.
Hartwig made the Olympic team in 1996, and he’s back 12 years later, still getting high on the feeling he gets when he hits one just right, more than 18 feet in the air.
“If I thought I could go 10 more years, I would,” said Hartwig, 40. “I love the sport that much.”
There isn’t a lot of fame or fortune in pole vault, but there is a lot of fun. Hartwig, who lives in Jonesboro, Ark., makes enough off the sport that he doesn’t have to work a regular job, and at least one guy in Denver envies him.
Pat Manson, who still holds the Colorado prep record he set at Aurora Central High School, is the same age as Hartwig and had many battles with him. At a meet last winter, they traded masters indoor world records. Manson went 17 feet, 7 inches, then Hartwig went 18 feet.
Manson had hopes of making the Olympic team, but he strained his groin last spring while moving a vault pad at a youth clinic he was conducting. That was the end of his Olympic aspirations, at least for 2008.
“The physical demands are just really high on your body,” Manson says. “Just to make an Olympic team is an amazing achievement. To do it at age 40 is even more so. We’re long jumpers that do a big gymnastics move in the air, with the precision of a golf swing.”
Hartwig attributes his longevity to staying injury-free, if not pain-free.
“My body hurts all the time,” said Hartwig, who lives in Jonesboro, Ark. “Nothing’s broken. I don’t have any injuries, but little things hurt all the time.”
After falling short of the Olympic team in 2004, Hartwig said there was no way he’d be back this year. It wasn’t that he wanted to quit — he just didn’t think he’d still be competitive.
“I never thought, as a 36-year-old, that it would be possible to be anywhere close to this level as a 40-year-old,” he said. “Yet I attribute my success as a 40-year-old to the fact that I just never quit.”
Manson has jumped in excess of 18 feet every year since 1985, hooked on the fun of it.
“You run down and you have a big takeoff, then you swing your body up to vertical, then you have all this energy stored up in the pole and in the momentum of your body,” Manson said. “Then it all comes together when the pole launches you off the top. When you do it right, it’s just a real thrill.”
Hartwig was second at the Olympic Trials. Brad Walker, who was third, won the gold medal at the world championships last year and is considered the favorite here, coming into the meet with the best vault in the world this year, 19-93/4. Qualifications are today.
Hartwig’s best this year is 18-8-3/4.
“I enjoy not only the training, the competition, the travel, just being around all the other pole vaulters,” Hartwig said. “My best friends in the world are the other vaulters. If I could go 10 more years, I would.”

Here’s the Grace Upshaw story:

For Upshaw, jumping is a family thing
By Jeff Faraudo Bay Area News Group
Grace Upshaw didn’t trigger the obsession with the long jump that seems to grip her family, and she won’t end it. Instead, she’s the link that secures three generations — so far — of passion for the event.
Upshaw, who begins competition Tuesday in her second Olympic Games, will be surrounded by family in Beijing. And that’s fitting, because the long jump is very much a family affair for the Upshaws. Both of her parents are here, along with a sister, two nieces and her boyfriend, Tim Mack. Most of them also are long jumpers, although Mack was the 2004 Olympic pole-vault champion.
“It means so much,” said Upshaw, 32, who grew up in Lafayette and went to Cal. “Just having everybody travel this distance and support me… it wouldn’t be the same if they weren’t here.”
Upshaw’s dad, Monte, 72, was a precocious star in the long jump more than 50 years ago. In 1954 he broke Jesse Owens’ 21-year-old national high school record with a leap of 25 feet, 41/2 inches. Just 18 years old, he was ranked No. 5 in the world that season.
Monte, whose career was cut short by a leg injury he suffered as a freshman at Cal, never was entirely comfortable with the fuss his father, Earnest, made over his achievements.
“He was very enthusiastic. I couldn’t understand all the attention,” Monte said. “I was just doing something that you do after school.”
Now he gets it, Grace believes.
“For him, it’s pretty cool,” she said. “His father was so proud and so excited for him when he was in high school and breaking these records. When he was growing up it was too much attention for him. He’s a pretty low-key guy, but his dad was loving it.
“We’ve talked about how special it is that he gets to experience what his father went through, to watch me achieve these goals,” Grace added. “He’ll say, ‘Now I understand what my dad was feeling.'”
Grace’s older sister, Joy Upshaw Margerum, 47, is an accomplished track athlete in her own right. She won three national age-group Masters titles earlier this month, including (of course) the long jump.
Grace doubts she will follow the Masters path — at least not until she reaches 50 — but she admires what her sister has achieved.
“The Masters thing is just great,” she said. “Part of why Joy loves it so much is she never really got to where she wanted to in college because she had so many things going on.”
Joy and husband Ken Margerum, the former Stanford and NFL wide receiver, have two daughters, Sunny and Windy, who are carrying on the tradition. Sunny, who just finished her sophomore year in high school, jumped 18-10 and reached the state meet. “I’ve coached her in the long jump, which was so fun for me,” Upshaw said. “She’s a foot ahead of me in high school, and she’s only 16.”
Windy, about to enter the fourth grade, already has sailed 11-2. And she wants more. “She sees me with Sunny and she gets a little competitive. She wants to make sure I’m coaching her too, not just Sunny,” Grace said. “She is the one who is going to pass all of us if she wants to stick with it.”
Monte Upshaw said he has gone out of his way with both his daughters and grandkids to avoid pushing sports on them. “I’m just glad they did it on their own,” he said. “Sunny and Windy both have great focus and competitiveness.”
Grace, who finished 10th at the Athens Olympics in 2004, is coming off a personal-best jump of 22-7 at the U.S. trials. She’s confident she can reach the medal stand this time. “Anything less than that will be a disappointment,” she said. “I feel like I’m ready.”
A proud father can’t wait to watch. Monte’s father died young, and he appreciates the gift of being here to soak in what all his girls are achieving.
“I feel so fortunate to be able to see this,” he said. “It’s really exciting to see Gracie compete at this level. She’s maximized her potential by the way she works at it.”