Meet Eliza McCartney, New Zealand’s top female pole vaulter. Last month, the Takapuna Grammar School senior student and prefect picked up a rare medal for New Zealand at the world junior track and field championship in Oregon, United States. That was a bronze, one place higher than her result in Ukraine last year. Even more notably, she broke the national senior women’s pole vault record of 4.40m, previously held by Melina Hamilton. McCartney’s new mark is 4.45m. Not bad for a 17-year-old student who was laid low by glandular fever earlier this year, right when she could have been qualifying for the Commonwealth Games. “I went over there with a mindset of wanting to really just finish off the season properly because I hadn’t jumped any higher than my PB from last season. I wasn’t necessarily worried about what place I got, but wanted to have a performance I was happy with,” she says. There’s no question she was “stoked” with her vault and the resultant medal. Now she can see a pathway through to the 2015 world University Games, the world championships, and even the Rio Olympic Games 2016, not to mention the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. Pole vaulting is a sport where one can mature later, so McCartney is adamant her best is yet to come. more
