Tearful end to last bids for places at Olympics
Kiwi pole vaulters unable to produce the magic in their final shot at a spot in Tokyo. Marc Hinton reports.
THE shoulders sagged, the reality hit and the tears flowed. Eliza McCartney’s Olympic dream was over and the emotions were just too much to contain.
The 24-year-old Aucklander, alongside national squadmate Olivia McTaggart, had her final crack yesterday at making it to the Tokyo Olympics in the last of three straight winter series pole vault meets at the AUT Millennium indoor facility.
Both had to clear 4.70 metres to nail an add-on spot at the Tokyo Games, and both failed at 4.50m as the realities of tough, disrupted buildups came home to haunt them. For McCartney, in particular, it was a gutwrenching outcome.
In 2016 she had won a fairytale bronze medal as a 19-year-old rookie sensation at the Rio Games. But for the past three years a chronic Achilles tendon problem has pretty much forced her to compete with the handbrake on. She says it’s 2018 – when she cleared her PB of 4.94m in Germany – when she last felt unencumbered.
It was clear yesterday, as she struggled to even complete her shortened runup, let alone launch herself up and over the heights required. McCartney gritted her teeth and tried hard, as did McTaggart who came awfully close to clearing 4.50m on her final attempt, but in the end the circumstances were just too much to shake off.
The truth is McCartney is a shadow of the pole vaulter she was from 2016 to 2018 when she soared to the very top echelons of her sport. Her debilitating condition just has not allowed her to either train or compete at anything resembling her best.
‘‘That was really tough, just to get down the runway,’’ McCartney told Sunday News after taking some time to compose herself.
‘‘The last time I felt at my best was in 2018 . . . I just haven’t been able to do that since. Every year that goes past it makes it a lot harder because you haven’t competed in so long, haven’t felt those feelings, haven’t been on the long runups, the right poles, and when you’re out of rhythm it makes it a lot harder to get back into it.
‘‘This year has been really tough. I wanted to stop a number of times in the last six months but something makes you just keep going.
‘‘I wanted to feel like I’d given it everything I had. I would have regretted it if I had stopped any sooner. I would have always thought, ‘what if, what if’?’’
McCartney never got any rhythm going in this last-chance event.
She came in at 4.30m, and only got things together on her final attempt to clear the bar. But at 4.50 she had a first-up misfire, could not even get off the ground on her second crack and was well off on her final roll of the dice.
McTaggart came a lot closer. The 21-year-old, who had to shake off a fractured hand suffered in March when a pole snapped on her and then an ankle injury, got over 4.30m comfortably at her second attempt and then had three fairly decent shots at 4.50m – just 5cm off her PB.
On her third she got the height, but just clipped the bar on her way down and watched in agony as it teetered and then fell to also extinguish her Olympic hopes.
McTaggart, too, felt the emotions unfurl at the end and had to be consoled by her support crew.
‘‘I feel like I’ve had that moment a few times this season, when I snapped my pole and a few other things. Sport is tough and it’s emotional and I was just happy to be out there with Eliza going for those heights and giving it everything,’’ she told Sunday News.
‘‘The fact we both had an opportunity to be that close to qualifying is exciting, but it makes not getting it a little bit worse.
‘‘My last jump was one of the best I’ve done . . . I just wish I’d maybe done it a little earlier. I was really close, [the bar] stayed on for about a second, gave me some hope and then crushed it.’’
Both will now take breaks before returning for a big 2022 season that will include potential shots at both the world indoor and outdoor championships and the Commonwealth Games.
For McCartney, in particular, a refresh is essential.
‘‘When I come back I need to feel really motivated and strong, like I’ve got new intentions and new goals. I need something that is going to help me get there.’’