FLYING HIGH—Erica Bartolina, shown here practicing in Strawberry Stadium prior to heading out to the Olympics, says it will likely take her best vault to attain her goal of joining the 12 women’s pole vaulters who will advance to the finals tonight when the track & field competition gets under way in the Beijing Olympics. John Lenz/File Photo

Hammond residents Erica and Mike Bartolina are realistic about Erica's chances in the women's pole vault competition Friday night at the Beijing Olympics.

"The top two in the world are really out there — the Russian world record-holder (Yelena Isinbayeva) and the American record-holder (Jennifer Stuczynski)," said Mike Bartolina, an assistant track coach at Southeastern who also coaches his pole vaulting wife.

“And then there's a big drop off to the third best," Mike Bartolina said before heading overseas for the Games. “I certainly can't say that Erica's a favorite to get the bronze medal, but it's not going to take a height that's beyond her ability, either. She's just going to have to be at her best on that day.

“If she does, she's got a chance.”

Bartolina will take her best shot tonight at about 9:10, Hammond time. Her clutch performance in the U.S. Olympic Trials last month earned her her first trip to the Olympics with a personal-best vault of 14 feet, 11 inches.

But she fairly bristles at the notion that she's just happy to be in Beijing.

“If you just say, ‘Oh, I've accomplished something’ and you don't ever think about what comes next, then you may as well quit," Erica said recently.

And so even though Isinbayeva is sitting out there with her recently minted world record of 16-6 1/2, and Stuczynski won her Olympic berth with a 16-1 3/4, Bartolina is undaunted.

That's because her 14-11 is right in line with a whole bunch of other qualifiers, including the USA's No. 2 vaulter, April Steiner Bennett at 15-1. That means that — just like in the Trials in Eugene, Ore. — it all comes down to who comes up big when the heat is on.

And Erica prides herself on coming up big in the biggest competitions.

"That mark puts me in the top 15 marks in the world this year," Bartolina said. “So then I'm looking at, OK, I'm in the mix now in the girls that are going to the Olympics. That's going to be a tough competition. Just to qualify for the finals there I'll probably have to jump close to as good as I did at the Olympic Trials.”

And that's the goal, Mike Bartolina said — give yourself a chance by turning in one of the 12 best jumps in tonight's preliminaries.

“The goal going forward is to make the Olympic final,” Mike said. “If she jumps this high (14-11), she'll make that. It's a good reasonable goal.

“And after you make the final, you put yourself in the best position that you can to have the most success that you can. If she jumps what she's capable of, she can put herself in a position to place high.”

That won't be easy under the brightest of lights at the Olympics, especially after Bartolina whacked her chin on the bar during a practice session last week in Dalian, China, and suffered a cut that required four stitches to close.

Bartolina said this week she has recovered from that setback — and her sense of humor certainly remains intact.

“I have had great practices since then," Bartolina wrote from Beijing. “I think it knocked some sense into me.”

And if it's any help, Bartolina should feel even more at home, weather-wise, in Beijing in August than she was in her old home state at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore, in July.

“It's closer to this," Mike Bartolina said before leaving Hammond in describing the expected weather conditions. “It's hot and humid. The qualifying round for the pole vault at 10:30 in the morning (China time), and they they said expect 90 degrees, 80 percent humidity.

“We've been training in the right stuff for that," he added. “That's a really good situation for us.”

Tonight, we find out whether Erica has the right stuff for Olympic success. Mike Bartolina, naturally, thinks she does, remembering something she told him late at night after Erica had qualified in Eugene.

“At 1 o'clock in the morning, she looked at me and said, ‘I don't want to be one of those people that just went to the Olympics and never did anything else,’” Mike said. “That tells me ... she's handling her business.”

Now she needs another of those clutch performances — or two.

“You can't ever control what everyone else does," Bartolina said. “I definitely want to make the final. And when I make the final, I'll just do the best I can.”

In addition to Bartolina, another women's track athlete with local ties will be competing in Beijing. Christine Amertil, a native of Nassau, The Bahamas, and a 2000 Southeastern graduate, has qualified for the Olympics for the third time for her home country in the 400-meter dash.

Amertil, who raced for Southeastern from 1998 to 2001 and still owns six school records, competed for the Bahamas in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2004 Athens Summer Games. She finished fifth in Sydney with a time of 53.12 and clocked 50.37 in Athens but finished sixth overall.

Amertil, 29, has a career-best 50.09 in the 400.