Creative coach behind rise of pole vault trio
The Rio Olympics did big things for pole vault in New Zealand but the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games are set to do more.
Pole vaulters make up a fifth of the athletics team named for the event on April 4-15.
Eliza McCartney, the Rio bronze medallist, leads the way, and is joined by Olivia McTaggart, the 18-year-old who is breaking her national age-group records, and Nick Southgate, a five-time national champion.
The trio have trained together under Jeremy McColl in Auckland for years, and will now compete together at a major international event, in what is almost a pinch yourself moment.
‘‘It’s been quite the evolution,’’ said McCartney, who turned 21 in December.
‘‘Going from having nobody at this level, to having me, to now having Nick and Olivia as well. There’s certainly others coming through who have not quite made it, but will be here soon.
‘‘It’s just amazing, it shows the hard work Jeremy’s put in, and the type of coach he is.’’
At 23, Southgate is the oldest of the trio. The Commonwealth Games will be his first major international event, and he was full of praise for what McColl had done to help him and the others get there.
‘‘It’s just his ingenuity,’’ Southgate said.
‘‘His creativeness, his dedication, his commitment to us as athletes and getting us to really find ourselves as athletes as well. He’s got an incredible eye for technique, and in pole vault, that’s something that’s essential.’’
Athletics New Zealand high performance director Scott Goodman has seen what McColl’s dedication looks like.
‘‘When I started here six and a half years ago, Jeremy, who is a builder, he’d start at two o’clock in the morning and work to midday on a building site, and then he’d come out here [to Athletics NZ’s Auckland training base] and work from as soon as he got here until nine o’clock at night on pole vault.’’
On the back of that work ethic, McColl created something special, which Athletics NZ has invested in heavily, especially in the wake of Rio.
‘‘It’s not just the coach, we find,’’ said Goodman. ‘‘It’s the environment. You create these training environments, you get groups of people together. You need a coach, but you also need a collective of people. It doesn’t mean you can’t get a one-off, but generally I think it’s the collective energy. You can’t bottle that, it’s not a science.’’
As McColl’s first crop of athletes step out onto the world stage – in a sense, McCartney has been the guinea pig – there are plenty of youngsters who have taken an interest in the sport.
‘‘You’ve got all these kids going, ‘oh, I want to have a crack at it,’ because it’s such Goodman said.
‘‘It’s almost the athletics version of an extreme sport.’’
When McCartney won bronze in Rio, pole vault broke through in the national sporting consciousness, to the point where McTaggart has people asking her: ‘‘Pole vault, is that what Eliza does?’’
‘‘Since Rio, where she got the bronze medal, it’s definitely had a bigger atmosphere and more children coming into it, and we’ve had lots more exposure for the sport, which is really good,’’ McTaggart said.
Southgate said it was great to see people embracing pole vault as spectators.
‘‘I love my sport so much,’’ he said. ‘‘Seeing people are getting enjoyment out of what I do, it’s amazing.’’
At the Commonwealth Games, the men’s pole vault final takes place on April 12, and the women’s on April 13.
McCartney is still making her way back from an Achilles tendon injury that disrupted her 2017, and has the world indoor championships at the start of March to worry about first a fun event,’’