After coaching Eliza McCartney remotely for the past three months, Scott Simpson has started working with the Olympic bronze medallist in person.
"Eliza's only been here for a couple of weeks now but we're just getting into it. Excited for the journey together over the next eight months to the Olympics where we can spend almost all of that in person," Simpson said.
The former British Athletics coach, who helped Holly Bradshaw to bronze at the Tokyo Olympics has taken up the lead pole vault coaching role at Athletics New Zealand. It comes after the departure of Jeremy McColl last year who was banned for 10 months for serious misconduct.
"Eliza's technical coaching situation left her in a bit of a difficult situation and I was asked whether I had the capacity to step in and fulfil that obligation and lead that team."
A change in coach is already paying off. McCartney cleared 4.73 metres at last month's Night of Fives meet in Auckland, an automatic Olympic qualification height off just 10 steps.
"There were some clear technical things that needed quite a lot of improvement. What Scott's been able to help me out with the most is really consistently jumping and refining those little technical pieces over the last three months," McCartney said.
The 27-year-old plans to compete at a number of indoor events in the United Kingdom and Europe before both return for March's New Zealand National Championships.
SHARE ME