Injuries may be past, but not in time for Comm Games

AUCKLAND: Eliza McCartney believes years of injury problems may be behind her and has recommitted to competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

McCartney, who stole the nation’s heart with her shock pole vault bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics, revealed she will not be able to compete at the Commonwealth Games and world championships this year.

The 25yearold Aucklander said the Commonwealth Games decision was particularly hard because even though it was not a premier pole vault competition, the Games traditionally meant a lot to New Zealanders.

But she will only pick up a pole vault again late this year, after nearly a year’s break forced by Achilles tendon and other injury issues.

Instead, she has concentrated on changing her biomechanics and even her training locations to recapture the form which made her a rising world star before injuries smashed her career.

McCartney said she had considered retiring when faced with the uncertainties of where a revamped approach to the sport would lead to.

‘‘I’ve never taken this amount of time away from the sport before,’’ she said.

‘‘We have stripped it back and is it worth continuing . . . what can actually be done with what I’ve got.

‘‘We found it was less medical than we thought in the past . . . I’m not the robust teenager anymore and we just didn’t move fast enough to the changes.

‘‘The main thing is there’s no reason to think it is over . . . there are ways to do it differently which is exciting. I want to give it a real crack again.’’ —