McCartney limps off track
Kiwi pole vault queen Eliza McCartney has confirmed there are no broken bones and she’s planning on seeing the season out, after she was forced to retire from the Diamond League event in Birmingham, England, yesterday with an injured heel.
The 21-year-old had gone into the penultimate round on the Diamond League calendar with high hopes of notching another personal best and edging closer to the magical five-metre mark but was forced to leave the venue on crutches.
McCartney was on just her second jump of the day, trying again to clear 4.20m, when the mishap happened. Her coach, Jeremy McColl, said she stalled in the jump and had her feet get tangled, then came down on the track by the box, jamming her heel on impact.
Initially it didn’t seem too major, with McCartney able to walk again soon after but, after a few steps, the pain was immense and ice was applied to her left foot to reduce the inflammation, before she withdrew from the competition and went for scans.
A few hours later she took to Instagram to confirm the injury was some heavy soft tissue bruising.
’’Thankfully, the damage isn’t too bad, no broken bones at least just some heavy soft tissue bruising. It might take a bit of time to recover but, at the moment, I’m still planning on seeing the season out,’’ she wrote.
McColl said McCartney hadn’t had this type of mishap before.
He said the medical advice was for three days with no weight bearing and plenty of icing, before they would know more about McCartney’s return to action.
She has three more events left on her calendar – one in Germany on August 26, the Diamond League final in Zurich on August 30 and a Continental Cup teams event in the Czech Republic on September 8 – with the first of those more of an unrealistic chance.
Sandi Morris went on to win the Birmingham event, on a day when 4.62m proved enough.
There were three other Kiwis in action at Birmingham, all on the track.
Nick Willis placed fifth in a field of 17 in the men’s mile, in a time of 3:56.77, with Australia’s Stewart McSweyn triumphing in 3:54.60.
Camille Buscomb finished 16th of 18 in the women’s 3000m, clocking 9:00.52, well behind Kenyan winner Agnes Jebet Tirop (8:32.21)
Angela Petty was ninth of 11 in the women’s 1000m, with 2:38.87 in an event won by the UK’s Laura Muir (2:33.94).