McCartney soars to record 4.82m
Eliza McCartney, New Zealand’s princess of the pole vault, continues to soar in the athletics world.
After her impressive 4.70m clearance indoors at Britomart on Wednesday to win the Vertical Pursuit, the 20-year-old Aucklander made an even bigger statement at Sundays Auckland Track Challenge when she thrilled a big crowd in sunny conditions with a magical clearance of 4.82m.
That improved her own PB, and national record, by 2cm, and was also a 1cm improvement on Alana Boyd’s Oceania record. And just for good measure it’s a worldleading outdoor clearance for 2017. All on a 12-stride shortened runup that will be increased by four paces when she heads to Europe to begin preparations for the world championships in London in August.
It was also 2cm better than the mark she cleared to win that memorable bronze at the Rio Olympics last year, and as she held her head in her hands in delight afterwards lying on the landing pad you could see just how much it meant to her.
‘‘I was super happy to get that, not only because it’s my all-time PB, it’s also a massive PB for the runup I was on, and I’m pretty sure it’s a world lead for the year and an Oceania record. So I banged them all out in one which is really nice.
‘‘The jump felt really good. It did look lucky the bar stayed on but those jumps happen every now and then.’’
McCartney said she had an inkling something special might be on when she turned up at her home track with conditions perfect, and a big crowd in attendance.
‘‘I felt really, really good today, from the second I started warming up.
‘‘My runup moved back heaps which means my speed was really good today. It moved back a lot during the competition, more than it’s ever moved before, so I was really, really fast today and got on to really big poles and that really helps.’’
McCartney had three shots at 4.90m, but never quite connected on any of them. But she said an awesome atmosphere had made it a near perfect day.
Canada’s Alysha Newman finished second with 4.50m, while American Morgann Leleux (4.40m) shaded Auckland youngster Olivia McTaggart (4.30m) for third.
On the track, it was an Australia sweep of the first four places in the men’s 800m, with Josh Ralph (1m 47.75s) shading national champ Luke Matthews (1:48.46), and a similar story in the 5000m where the visitors from across the Tasman filled the first four spots as well, headed by Brett Robinson who won in 13:22.93 – just outside the world champs qualifying mark.
Te Awamutu’s Katherine Marshall (2:02.90) caused an upset in the women’s 800m when she nudged Rio Olympian Angie Petty (2:03.05) to claim the two-lap honours.