Track and Field Masters

Paul and Brenda Babits, 51

Published: April 2, 2012

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Aaron P. Bernstein for The New York Times

Paul Babits pole vaulting.

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Most pole-vaulters do not stick with the sport after their youthful heyday. The spirit may be willing, but the humility is weak. "They don't want to jump at heights three or four feet less than they used to," Paul Babits said. He is different. An athlete who twice qualified for the United States Olympic trials, he not only has kept up with the sport, he has also turned it into a business, coaching vaulters at a custom-built facility in Fort Wayne, Ind. Among his students was his previously nonathletic wife, Brenda, a graphic artist. "She couldn't even run around the block," Paul said. Brenda, pole-vaulting now for five years, has a best of 8 ½ feet. "The feeling you get flying over the bar, nothing is better than that," she said.

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