Mack Out for Winter Season

[roger/over]

On the IAAF Website <iaaf.org>, Bob Ramsak reports:

After a slight left calf strain interrupted his pre-season training, Olympic Pole
Vault champion Tim Mack has decided to sit out the indoor season.

He's training, but he's just not where he wants to be in order to step on the
track and perform at a level he expects from himself," said Chris Layne,
director of communications for Total Sports, the management agency that
represents Mack. "He's disappointed he'll miss indoors but is confident it's a
responsible decision, and one that will allow him to pick up where he left off
in Monaco."

In Athens last August, Mack raised the Olympic record with a last-attempt
clearance of 5.95 to strike Olympic gold. Three weeks later, he joined the
event's exclusive six-metre club with his 6.01 clearance to win the
season-capping IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco. Only 11 others have
scaled six metres.

Mack was scheduled to appear at world record holder Sergey Bubka's Pole
Vault Stars 2005 meeting in Donetsk, Ukraine, on 12 February, the largest
international gathering of pole vault talent held indoors each year. He has
also been forced to cancel his scheduled appearance at the GE Galan
Indoor meeting in Stockholm two days later.

[Scott Go Pre]

I was fortunate enough to be on a plane ride with Tim, to and from Reno. He said that he is going to take a few weeks off to heal from his calf injury. He did not say if he was going to jump at a meet or two, but he said that he might not be jumping this indoor season. Although, it would have been cool to see Tim go higher this season.