Eliza’s health message for children
Olympic pole vault medallist Eliza McCartney has urged youngsters in Taranaki to ditch sugary drinks and stick to water.
‘‘It’s not necessarily known by a lot of people that things like sports drinks, and things like juices, are also high in sugar, acidic and bad for your teeth,’’ the 21-year-old said during a visit to Fitzroy School in New Plymouth yesterday.
McCartney was visiting the school to promote the Switch to Water Challenge, for which she is an ambassador.
The aim is for people to agree to drink only water for 30 days, and McCartney said that was all most people required.
‘‘I have no association with sports drinks. For my sport and for what I do, I don’t need them.
‘‘The extreme cases like marathon running, that’s a different thing and, yes, I understand why you may need it.
‘‘But the general message for Kiwis is that if you played a game of soccer in the weekend you don’t need to have a sports drink. It’s not healthy.’’
The self-confessed sweet tooth has been sugary drinks free for three years and said it was easy to make the adjustment.
‘‘Water is free, it’s cheaper than going and buying those sugary drinks so it’s about building those habits and learning young to choose water instead.
‘‘The statistic is one in 20 New Zealand children have teeth extracted every year from tooth decay so it’s certainly something that’s prevalent.’’
Fitzroy school students Hannah Armstrong, Charlotte Struthers and Phoenix Fraser said they would stop drinking sugary drinks after meeting McCartney.
‘‘Yeah definitely,’’ they said in unison.
‘‘I’ve always wanted to meet her and it was really awesome being able to actually talk to her in person,’’ said Struthers, who watched McCartney in the 2016 Olympics.
McCartney is preparing for a busy year ahead with summer competitions and the athletics world championships in September.
She is also looking ahead to the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020 where she says she will focus on her own performance and try to beat her personal best of 1.94m, which saw her ranked the fourth female pole vaulter in the world.
Despite her success not everyone is aware of her achievements.
‘‘I get people apologising for not knowing who I am and honestly I don’t expect it at all. It’s only been the last couple of years that I’ve been known,’’ she laughed.
‘‘Obviously you want to win and medal, but the closer it gets to the time it’s not what I’m focusing on.
‘‘I’m focusing on my own performance because when you’re competing in an event like pole vault and a field event you’re always competing against yourself.
‘‘You could jump a massive personal best, something you’ve never ever done before and someone could still jump higher. So you have to focus on your own performances.’’