McCartney’s Games run-up hamstrung
Eliza McCartney is once again being forced to manage a nagging injury.
Following three years of niggly injury setbacks, the Olympics bronze medallist pole vaulter was hopeful of a clean run in 2019 but, on the back of a highflying start in January, those ambitions have already been derailed.
She uncharacteristically failed to record a jump at the Sydney Track Classic last weekend when she missed all three attempts at 4.41 metres.
McCartney, 22, has told the Sunday Star-Times she was putting the poor performance down to a hamstring injury she has been trying to get on top of for almost six months.
‘‘I essentially just have a bit of a tendonosity in the hamstring tendon,’’ McCartney said.
‘‘Some days it’s good and some days it’s bad. I managed to get it quite good at the beginning of the year and unfortunately in Sydney it was just having a terrible time and that didn’t help.’’
She will be forced to try to control the frustrating injury as she heads to Christchurch for the Jennian Homes NZ Track and Field Championships at Nga¯ Puna Wai in Christchurch between March 8 and 10.
‘‘I’ve had a lot of tendon injuries in the past. This is by no means the first and I’m sure it won’t be the last,’’ she said.
‘‘They’re not that easy to deal with but you can get them under control and compete normally and not have a problem.’’
Managing injuries will be critical over the next 17 months as McCartney builds towards September’s IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha and next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
‘‘We’ve just got to do our best to stay on top of it,’’ McCartney said.
‘‘It’s not something I’m worried about at all though because the way I’m jumping and training I know that when I can jump and when I’m able to jump I’m jumping really well.
‘‘I just seem to be slightly prone to it [injury] at the moment.’’
McCartney’s performance in her second event of the year makes the injury even more frustrating because when she is fit and firing the emerging star of the athletics world is showing just what she is capable of.
At the Potts Classic in January, McCartney cleared 4.85 metres in her opening effort – just 9cm below her personal best of 4.94m.
She raised the bar to five metres and missed three times but the elusive five-metre mark was so close McCartney thought she had nailed it.
‘‘Two attempts were really good but one of them in particular I got my legs and my hips over and kind of hit it with my chest on the way down. It’s definitely there, it’s really close.
‘‘I just couldn’t have hoped for a better start to the season, that was beyond what I thought I would be able to do that day.’’
Only three women – world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva, Jennifer Suhr and Sandi Morris – have achieved the magic fivemetre mark. Isinbayeva holds the world record with her 5.06m in Zurich in 2009.
McCartney, who claimed the silver medal at last year’s Commonwealth Games, will go into the nationals and Lincoln University Street Athletics Festival on Wednesday with zero expectations but safe in the knowledge she could easily clear five metres if her body allows her.
‘‘For me when I’m relaxed and I’m enjoying it, that’s when I’ve jumped the biggest heights and the best PBs.’’
McCartney will be joined at the Christchurch events by Sydney Classic winner Olivia McTaggart and a third young Kiwi pole vaulter on the rise, Imogen Ayris.
‘‘Having that competition is so good because everyone pushes everyone to succeed but it also means international competitors want to come to New Zealand.’’
McTaggart and Ayris have both made the qualifying standard for the World University Games.