Just being back competing is an accomplishment for Kiwi pole vaulter Eliza McCartney.
Two years of dealing with a debilitating Achilles injury has put her chances of winning another Olympic medal in serious doubt, but while at Auckland’s Millennium institute today, it's now clear simply making it to Tokyo would be just as remarkable.
McCartney, who won bronze in 2016, competed in the first of three organised meets on a chilly Auckland morning which has been put together purely for a shot at Olympic qualification for her, Olivia McTaggart or Imogen Ayris.
The other two meets are over the next two weekends, meaning effectively McCartney has just three weeks to overcome a two-year struggle.
"I mean, it's not great but that's just the way it is," McCartney said.
"It's actually kind of easy to compartmentalise that a little bit because we've only got, like, two or three weeks of qualification left and so I can just push through it and it doesn't really matter what happens."
However, even in her warm-up, the toll of the last two years were obvious with a noticeably shortened run-up as much as her body could handle.
"I think I'm pretty numb to it now to be honest it's just the way it is - I don't know what my future is going to look like with this, but right now it's definitely in one of its worst periods."
McCartney has a personal best of 4.94 metres but today she needed three attempts to get over 4.05 and 4.20.
A 15-centimetre increase from there proved too much, leaving a question around the Olympic standard of 4.70 McCartney admitted she doesn’t have an answer for.
"I'm actually ok with not knowing at this point."
The 24-year-old added she can't be sure what life will look like if she doesn't qualify.
"The short answer is because I'm only 24, I don't think there's any reason to think that, you know, it's time to think about those sorts of things."
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