Raising the bar
Pole vault star Eliza McCartney says a rethink on the way she moves from trainer Matt Dallow has her free of injury and brimming with confidence. Marc Hinton reports.
They say you have to walk before you can run. For Kiwi pole vault star Eliza McCartney that has been especially true as she has rebuilt her whole way of moving in one last bid to save her stalled athletics career.
The good news was that a biomechanical reset, undertaken under the careful watch of new trainer Matt Dallow, appeared to have been, not only successful, but have her back on track for a tilt at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Unfortunately – and McCartney confirms she did this hard – July’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham come just too soon, and the surprise Olympic medallist from Rio in 2016 is now counting down to a likely competitive return in December this year.
All told, McCartney is finally in a good place on the back of her failure to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Since then she’s tucked away a much-needed three-month total break from the sport, a reshaping of her support team, and a 360-degree rethink on how she
‘‘The first week was spent making sure the way I walk is conducive to the way I run.’’
Eliza McCartney
operates as an athlete, including the very way she moves.
McCartney has spent much of the last four years plagued by mainly Achilles tendon and hamstring issues as she has failed to soar to the heights that saw her win that shock bronze in Brazil and then set her personal best, and national record, of 4.94 metres in Germany in 2018.
‘‘The main change we’ve made in the last six months has not been anything medical ... yes, we understand maybe I have some underlying susceptibilities to certain injuries, but actually we can
improve a lot by changing the way I run and my mechanics in the gym and on the track,’’ an upbeat McCartney told Stuff.
What has ensued has been a Dallow-led biomechanical overhaul, encompassing kinematics and runway mechanics, with the hope, no expectation, ‘‘all those things will make enough of a difference’’. McCartney’s smile and the return of that upbeat personality that has made her a poster athlete for so many Kiwi companies is proof positive she has made, not just tangible progress, but indeed can now envision herself as the athlete she has not come near to being for the last four years.
‘‘It’s exciting to feel much more in control of the situation again, and feel this isn’t a lost cause, that it is salvageable,’’ she says.
‘‘I want to carry on – I wouldn’t want to leave it the way I finished before Tokyo last year. The fact I’ve been given this second chance, with support from High Performance Sport NZ, Athletics NZ and my sponsors, it’s incredible. I can’t overstate how fortunate I feel.’’
The changes have been comprehensive. As well as Dallow, she has added sports psychologist John Quinn and physio Chelsea Lane to her team, has shifted her training base (for now, at least) to Trusts Arena in Waitakere, has adopted a ‘‘quality not quantity’’ approach to the amount of sessions she does, and it is all being looked at through a ‘‘biomechanical lens’’.
She has literally learned to walk, and run, again.
‘‘That was the first thing Matt did with me ... the first week was spent making sure the way I walk is conducive to the way I run. We started right at the very beginning, and set aside a serious amount of time because these are motor patterns I’ve had my whole career. He told me, ‘if you’re serious about being in the best shape for 2024, then this is what I have to do’.
‘‘It was a big decision to commit to that, because it meant I wasn’t going to be able to compete this year, and it wasmassive to let go of the Commonwealth Games.’’