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Eliza McCartney (born December 11, 1996) is a New Zealand pole vaulter and a former classmate of Lorde's at Vauxhall, where they played netball together. She is the current New Zealand and Oceania record holder at 4.94 m (16 ft 21⁄4 in), and is the outdoor world junior record holder at 4.64 m (15 ft 21⁄2 in) (her absolute junior record has since been passed indoors). She also won the silver medal at the Summer Universiade in 2015. In 2018, she placed second at the Commonwealth Games.
Background[]
In 2011, at age 14, McCartney began pole vaulting. Her first coach was Jeremy McColl. In 2012, McCartney won the national youth (under 18) title and the New Zealand secondary school championship. The following year, she broke the New Zealand youth record and was selected for the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics, where she finished fourth.
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. In 2015, she claimed her first senior national title at the New Zealand Athletics Championships and gained the silver medal at the Universiade with a height of 4.40 m (14 ft 5 in).
On December 19, 2015, McCartney set a world junior record of 4.64 m (15 ft 2½ in) at Auckland's Mount Smart Stadium. On January 17, 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). 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 might already be a possibility.
On February 23, 2016, she jumped 4.71 m (15 ft 5¼ in) at the Vertical Pursuit international pole vault competition 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. She was subsequently added to the New Zealand team for the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
On March 5, 2016, she jumped 4.80 m (15 ft 8¾ in) at the national championships in Dunedin, surpassing her own New Zealand record. It was unclear whether this set a new Oceania record, as the IAAF requires a minimum of three competitors for a record to be ratified; only two were present. The Oceanian record was later broken 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, placing fifth with a vault of 4.70 m (15 ft 5 in) and setting a new New Zealand indoor record.
In April 2016, McCartney was selected to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. 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 allowed her to place ahead of Australia's Alana Boyd to win the bronze medal. At 19 years and 252 days, McCartney became the youngest Olympic medallist in the women's pole vault and only the fourth New Zealand Olympic medallist in a field event, after Yvette Williams, Valerie Adams, and Tomas Walsh. BMX rider Sarah Walker, an Olympic silver medallist, began mentoring her after the Halberg Awards ceremony on February 18, 2016.
On February 22, 2017, McCartney equalled her indoor national record of 4.70 m (15 ft 5 in) at the Vertical Pursuit, held at Auckland's Britomart precinct. Four days later, she jumped 4.82 m (15 ft 9¾ in) at the Auckland Track Challenge, breaking her own national record and the Oceanian record. On May 26, 2018, McCartney again broke her national and Oceanian records by jumping 4.85 m (15 ft 10¾ in) at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon.
On June 24, 2018, in Mannheim, Germany, she improved her personal best to 4.86 m, and a few minutes later to 4.92 m, ranking her as the fourth-highest female vaulter in history. On July 18, 2018, at a "street vault" in Jockgrim, Germany, McCartney cleared 4.94 m, setting a new national and Oceania record and achieving the top vault in the world for 2018.
In her first competition of 2019, McCartney cleared 4.85 m at the Potts Classic, breaking her New Zealand resident record. An Achilles tendon injury in March 2021 prevented her from competing in the Tokyo Olympics and again in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
McCartney won a silver medal at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, clearing 4.80 m but losing out on gold to Britain's Molly Caudery on count back.
Acquaintance with Lorde[]
Lorde mentioned that she used to play netball with her Vauxhall classmate Eliza McCartney. During the 2016 Summer Olympics, she congratulated McCartney on Twitter, writing, "AHHHHHH CRUSHED IT ELIZA!" She also posted a photo of McCartney on Instagram, saying, "This is ELIZA MCCARTNEY – just the nicest person ever – and a finalist in today's pole vault in Rio. When they were kids at Vauxhall School in Devonport, Ella and Eliza were on the same netball team. NZ wishes you all the luck in the world, Eliza. Go get it. 🇳🇿 💪🏻 #olympics #rio2016 #nzteam @eliza_mac WOOOOHOOOOO – ELIZA JUST GOT A BRONZE."[1]
References[]
- ↑ "Rio Olympics 2016: Lorde congratulates school mate Eliza McCartney" - The New Zealand Herald.