http://www.journalgazette.net/article/2 ... 1002/LOCALThree rivers festival
Competitors set sights high during Street Vault
Overcast skies and parking lot dust didn’t set the typical scene for a spiritual paradise, but Saturday’s Street Vault was just what Paul Babits believes it should be.
“This is a pole vault mecca,” the meet promoter said Saturday. “Year in and year out, Fort Wayne turns out some of the best pole vaulters in the country.”
Sponsored by Babits’ Fort Wayne-based Vault High Athletics, the exhibition meet attracted about 50 athletes from Allen County as well as Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, where the pole vault center hosts instructional camps every summer.
The demonstration event occupied Fourth Street in front of the Lawton Park skate park with a makeshift platform and dozens of people lining nearby sidewalks to watch.
Onlookers began softly clapping as each pole vaulter approached, planted, took off and swung up, gradually building their slow applause into a raucous drum.
Babits said that type of community support raises the sport’s profile in a city that already embraces it. He added he was looking forward to the elite vaulters round, which was to feature such renowned athletes as Kevin Schipper and Gary Hunter later Saturday afternoon.
“Just the fact that they’re here helps promote us,” he said. “It’s all about keeping the kids motivated to go on with the sport.”
Among the elite vaulters, heights topping 17 feet, 6 inches are not uncommon, he said. And as the event built momentum, Babits might have been tempted to leave his responsibilities as announcer for another duty.
At last month’s Rush County Fair Vault in Rushville, Babits cleared 15 feet, 7.4 inches in the men’s 50-54 age division, setting a record. He’s a champion, too.