Eliza McCartney

Eliza McCartney

Eliza McCartney at Caledonian Ground in Dunedin on 5 March 2016 after clearing 4.80 m
Personal information
Born	11 December 1996 Auckland, New Zealand
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Sport
Country	New Zealand
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Pole vault
Club	North Harbour Bays Athletics
Coached by	Jeremy McColl
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Outdoor: 4.80 m (2016 NR) Indoor: 4.70 m (2016 NR)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  New Zealand Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro Pole vault World Junior Championships 2014 Eugene Pole vault Summer Universiade 2015 Gwangju Pole vault
Updated on 18 March 2016.

Eliza McCartney (born 11 December 1996) is a New Zealand track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault. She is the current New Zealand national record holder with 4.80 m (15 ft 8 ³⁄₄ in), and is a former outdoor world junior record holder at 4.64 m (15 ft 2 ¹⁄₂ in). She was a silver medallist at the Summer Universiade in 2015. Competing in senior competitions since March 2016, she won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Private life

McCartney was born in Auckland,^[2][3] where she still lives in the seaside suburb of Devonport. Her father William McCartney previously competed in the high jump while her mother Donna Marshall previously competed as a gymnast.^[4] She has two younger brothers.^[4] She attended Vauxhall School and later Takapuna Grammar School, where she was in the same year as the singer-songwriter Lorde; the two played netball together.^[5][6] McCartney was most fond of netball growing up, with her height and agility giving her an advantage in playing defence. She also participated in a myriad of other sports in her youth, including cross country running, basketball, touch rugby, squash, tennis, swimming, and water polo.^[7] Eventually, she moved onto track and field,^[8] being a successful high jumper in her early teens before beginning pole vaulting in 2011.^[9] McCartney studies physiology at the University of Auckland.^[10][11]

Career

McCartney in December 2014

In 2011, McCartney was 14 when she went to former pole vaulter Jeremy McColl—he won gold in that discipline at the 2004 Oceania Athletics Championships—to try out the sport. McColl remains her coach.^[9] In 2012, McCartney won the national youth (under 18) title and the New Zealand secondary school championship.^[12] The following year she broke the New Zealand youth record and was selected for the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics^[13] where she finished fourth.^[14]

In July 2014 McCartney took the bronze medal at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics, with a vault of 4.45 m (14 ft 7 in) which was her first New Zealand national record.^[3] In 2015 she claimed her first senior national title at the New Zealand Athletics Championships.^[12] and gained the silver medal at the Universiade with a height of 4.40 m (14 ft 5 in).^[15]

On 19 December 2015 McCartney set a world junior record of 4.64 m (15 ft 2 ¹⁄₂ in) at Auckland's Mount Smart Stadium.^[16] On 17 January 2016 she vaulted 4.65 m (15 ft 3 in) in Brisbane, Australia improving her own national senior and junior records (but not the world junior record).^[17] McCartney and McColl's long-term goal had been for her to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but it became clear during 2015 that the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro may already be a possibility.^[9]

On 23 February 2016, she jumped 4.71 m (15 ft 5 ¹⁄₄ in) at the Vertical Pursuit international pole vault competition^[18] at Millennium Institute of Sport in Auckland, setting four new records: New Zealand national, New Zealand under 20, New Zealand resident, and New Zealand all comers.^[19] She was subsequently added to the New Zealand team to the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships^[20]

On 5 March 2016, she jumped 4.80 m (15 ft 8 ³⁄₄ in) at the national championships in Dunedin, to surpass her own New Zealand record.^[21] It is not clear whether or not this set a new Oceania record. The IAAF normally requires a minimum of three competitors^[22] in an event for a record to be ratified and in this case, there were only two. Regardless, the Oceanian record was broken later in July 2016 by Alana Boyd of Australia, with a jump of 4.81 m.

McCartney made her senior international debut at the March 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon.^[9] She placed fifth with a vault of 4.70 m (15 ft 5 in),^[23] setting a new New Zealand indoor record.

McCartney clears the bar during the women's pole vault qualifying round at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

In April 2016, McCartney was selected to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.^[24] In the Olympic final, she cleared 4.50 m, 4.60 m, 4.70 m, and her personal best 4.80 m on her first attempts, but was eliminated after failing to clear 4.85 m. Her 4.80 m result and no misses up to that height saw her place ahead of Australia's Alana Boyd to win the bronze medal.^[25] At age 19 years and 252 days, McCartney became the youngest Olympic medallist in the women's pole vault.^[26] She was also only the fourth New Zealand Olympic medallist in a field event, after Yvette Williams (long jump, 1952), Valerie Adams (shot put, 2008, 2012, 2016), and Tomas Walsh (shot put, 2016).^[9] BMX rider Sarah Walker, an Olympic silver medallist, approached McCartney at the Halberg Awards ceremony on 18 February 2016 and has been mentoring her since.^[27]

Awards and recognition

McCartney won the Emerging Talent category of New Zealand's Halberg Awards for 2015 at an awards ceremony held on 18 February 2016.^[28][29] The year before, she was a finalist in the Halberg Awards Emerging Talent category, which was won by cyclist Regan Gough.^[30]

Sponsorship and advertising work

In October 2016, McCartney became an ambassador for Beef and Lamb New Zealand, joining existing athlete ambassadors Lisa Carrington, Sophie Pascoe, and Sarah Walker.^[31]

Statistics

Personal bests

Event	Height	Date	Location
Pole vault (outdoor)	4.80 m NR	5 March 2016	Dunedin, New Zealand
		19 August 2016	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Pole vault (indoor)	4.70 m NR	17 March 2016	Portland (OR), United States
High jump	1.70 m	2 April 2011	Hamilton, New Zealand

Pole vault annual progression

Year	Performance	Competition	Location	Date	World ranking
2011	3.60 m	New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships	Wellington, New Zealand	10 December	–
2012	3.85 m	New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships	Dunedin, New Zealand	8 December	–
2013	4.11 m	Greater Auckland Secondary Schools Championships	Auckland, New Zealand	26 March	–
2014	4.45 m	World Junior Championships	Eugene (OR), United States	24 July	36=
2015	4.64 m	Summer Series 7	Auckland, New Zealand	19 December	19
2016	4.80 m	New Zealand National Championships	Dunedin, New Zealand	5 March	7
		Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	19 August

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
2013	World Youth Championships	Donetsk, Ukraine	4th	Pole vault	4.05 m
2014	World Junior Championships	Eugene, United States	3rd	Pole vault	4.45 m NR
2015	Universiade	Gwangju, South Korea	2nd	Pole vault	4.40 m
2016	World Indoor Championships	Portland, United States	5th	Pole vault	4.70 m NR
2016	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	3rd	Pole vault	4.80 m NR

References

1. Hinton, Marc (12 March 2016). "Kiwi pole vault sensation Eliza McCartney staying grounded amid record spree". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
2. "Eliza McCartney – Pole Vaulting in Ukraine". Vaulter Magazine. 12 July 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
3. "Athletics: McCartney vaults to new national record". The New Zealand Herald. 25 July 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
4. Rattue, Chris (24 December 2015). "McCartney ready for lift-off". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
5. "Rio Olympics 2016: Lorde congratulates school mate Eliza McCartney". The New Zealand Herald. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
6. "Dux 2015". Takapuna Grammar School. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
7. Meng-Yee, Carolyne (8 October 2016). "Eliza McCartney - Raising the bar". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
8. "Did You Know? Eliza McCartney". IAAF. 31 August 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
9. Leggat, David (20 August 2016). "Rio Olympics 2016: McCartney stuns with bronze". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
10. "Science student wins Halberg Emerging Talent". University of Auckland. 22 February 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
11. "Pole vaulting onto the world's biggest sporting stage". University of Auckland. 18 February 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
12. Eliza McCartney Athlete Profile. Athletics New Zealand. Retrieved on 19 December 2015.
13. "New Zealand team for World Youth Championships". IAAF. 28 March 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
14. Featured Athlete - Eliza McCartney. Athletics Auckland. Retrieved on 19 December 2015.
15. Eliza McCartney Wins Silver In Gwangju. New Zealand Olympic Committee. Retrieved on 19 December 2015.
16. Minshull, Phil (19 December 2015). New Zealand's Eliza McCartney breaks world junior pole vault record". IAAF. Retrieved on 19 December 2015.
17. In New Zealand, athletes are eligible to set records based on their age on the day of competition. IAAF records are based on the athlete's age at the end of the year in which the competition takes place. Because McCartney will turn 20 in December 2016, she is ineligible to set junior (under 20) world records in any part of 2016.
18. Rattue, Chris (24 February 2016). "Athletics: Another record for Eliza McCartney". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
19. "Teen pole vault sensation hits new career height with national record". One News Now. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
20. "McCartney added to World Indoor team". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
21. Hinton, Marc (5 March 2016). "Red-hot pole vaulter Eliza McCartney smashes more records with leap of 4.80m". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
22. Johnson, Len (5 March 2016). "Rudisha, Boyd and Denny victorious at challenge opener in Melbourne" (Press release). Melbourne, Australia: IAAF. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
23. "Eliza McCartney finishes 5th at world champs". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
24. "Strong athletics team named for Rio Olympics". The New Zealand Herald. 22 April 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
25. "Rio Olympics 2016: Live updates - day 14". The New Zealand Herald. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
26. "Report: Women's pole vault final - Rio 2016 Olympic Games". International Association of Athletics Federations. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
27. "Rio Olympics 2016: Sarah Walker elected to the IOC athletes' commission". The New Zealand Herald. 22 August 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
28. "Eliza McCartney wins Halberg Emerging Talent Award". Athletics New Zealand. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
29. "As it happened: Halberg Awards". The New Zealand Herald. 18 February 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
30. "Video: Regan Gough wins Emerging Talent award at Halberg Awards". 3 News NZ. 11 February 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
31. "Rio Olympics 2016: McCartney becomes an Iron Maiden". The New Zealand Herald. 5 October 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.

External links

• Eliza McCartney profile at IAAF