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Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images
Eliza McCartney is on the comeback trail after a long run of injuries (FILE PHOTO).
Eliza McCartney took another massive leap in her comeback from years of injuries by winning her first national title in six years with a massive season’s best.
The 26-year-old from Auckland cleared 4.61m and beat last year’s champion, Olivia McTaggart, on countback in Saturday’s women’s pole vault at the national track and field championships in Wellington.
The 2016 Olympic bronze medallist from the Rio Games hadn’t won the national title since 2017 after a long struggle with Achilles and hamstring injuries.
McCartney was competing against McTaggart and last year’s Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Imogen Ayris, at Newtown Park and all cleared 4.46m to lift the bar another 15cm.
Ayris could not clear 4.61m in three attempts – her personal best is 4.50m – and had to settle for third, leaving McCartney and McTaggart leaping for the national title.
McCartney made the height with her second effort and McTaggart was successful with her third, extending the competition to a new height of 4.71m – the automatic qualifying height for the world championships in August in Budapest, Hungary.
Simon Stacpoole/Photosport
Olivia McTaggart won last year’s national title but finished second on Saturday (FILE PHOTO).
Neither were successful at 4.71m and McCartney was declared the winner having cleared 4.61m in fewer attempts.
MORE TO COME
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