Young vaulter sets record

Sixteen-year-old pole vaulter Olivia Mctaggart just keeps on getting better.

Less than a month after breaking Olympic bronze medallist Eliza Mccartney’s national under-17 record by 11cm with a 4.22m vault, Mctaggart has extended her own record by 8cm.

Mctaggart’s 4.30m vault in Auckland at the weekend means she has now vaulted 19cm higher than Mccartney did as an under-17 years competitor.

The Auckland teenager also moves into fourth on the all-time New Zealand women’s list, and another 11cm will move her into second behind Mccartney’s personal-best and bronze medal winning height of 4.80m.

Mctaggart, who, like 19-yearold Mccartney, is coached by Jeremy Mccoll, has now cleared the bar a whopping 60cm higher than her winning jump (3.70m) to seal the national under-20 title in Dunedin last March.

Earlier this month, Mctaggart said she went into this season hoping to clear the bar at 4.12m this season. Her rapid improvement now has her eyeing up the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

‘‘The big goal is the Tokyo 2020 Olympics,’’ Mctaggart. ‘‘It’s always been my dream to go to the Olympics, and now it’s sort of looking a little bit more likely.’’

But first and foremost, she wants to eclipse another of Mccartney’s records - the national secondary schools record (4.10m) in Auckland next weekend.

The year- 2 pupil at Kristin School in Albany also plans to defend her national under-18 and under-20 titles at March’s national track and field championships in Hamilton. Mctaggart has Kiwi and Australian parents and was born on the Gold Coast, before she moved to Auckland with her family when she was five.