McCartney out early as wind puts vaulters off stride in Oslo
The lessons continue to be logged up by New Zealand pole vaulter Eliza McCartney.
The North Shore leaper was eliminated surprisingly early from yesterday’s Diamond League meeting in Oslo, despite having started the event as one of the two leading contenders to win it.
McCartney, who took third at the Diamond League meeting in Rome last weekend with a best vault of 4.75 metres, failed at all three attempts at 4.55m. Her New Zealand record, set early this year in Auckland, stands at 4.82m.
Cuban former world champion Yarisley Silva, whom McCartney was expected to duel with as the bestperformed athletes in the field of eight, won the title with a jump of 4.81m with Russian Anzhelika Sidorova ( 4.75m) and German Liza Ryzih ( 4.65m) filling the minor places.
Yesterday’s lesson for McCartney was coping with tricky, swirling winds in the large stadium. By her coach Jeremy McColl’s assessment, there was a large dollop of luck involved for the vaulters. None of them were particularly happy, indeed world champion of 2015 Silva made a point of singling out the wind after the event as particularly challenging.
“It was the luck of the draw really,” McColl said. “It was throwing all the marks around a little. It was very hard to judge what the wind was doing, but that’s what it does in stadiums like this. You can be halfway down the runway and all of a sudden it changes.”
It was the New Zealand pair’s first visit to Oslo, as it will be when they get to Stockholm for the next leg of the league on Monday morning ( New Zealand time). So chalk it up to a valuable experience.
McColl said McCartney was in good shape, her spirits were still good and indeed her leadup work, both in recent days and in warmups yesterday, were solid.
“Everything’s going well,” he said. “It’s how she bounces back from this. She’ll take a bit out of it. It’ll build her character a lot.
“It’s just trying to learn from it and [ so] we can build on it coming to the major championships.”
The more big stadium events the better for McCartney’s development. She’s sticking to her shorter 12- step runup for now but is likely to go back further as the world championships come into view. They are McCartney’s prime target this year, being held in London in early August. She has competed in London before so there shouldn’t be any surprises.
Oslo hadn’t thrown the pair off stride. Indeed the absence of the two vaulters who beat her at the Rio Olympics, gold medallist Ekaterina Stefanidi of Greece, and American Sandi Morris, may have given a clue of what lay in store.
“The reason those girls are not here are the conditions,” McColl said. “Absolutely we’ll take a lot out of it. We’ll train tomorrow [ today] and with Stockholm in a couple of days we’re not going to change too much. Hopefully conditions in Stockholm are good.”
World champion Dafne Schippers was the central figure in a bizarre incident in the women’s 200m race. Dutch sprinter Schippers, celebrating her 25th birthday, made a false start in her race but was allowed to continue after signalling to officials that she could not hear.
Schippers then won the race comfortably in 22.31s before her disqualification was announced and Ivorian Murielle Ahoure, who finished in 22.74s, was declared the winner. However, one hour later, the Diamond League organisers t weeted: “Confirmation: Dafne Schippers reinstated as winner in the 200m with a time of 22.31.” No further explanation was given.