Kiwi pole vaulter Eliza McCartney has the prestigious five-metre clearance firmly in her sights as she heads into the second half of the Diamond League season.
The 21-year-old was injured for much of last season, but is now back to full fitness and is seeing the benefits of the work she put in on the sidelines.
McCartney is in the form of her life, improving her New Zealand record by seven centimetres with a jump of 4.92m in Germany last week, and is looking to improve that in the near future.
"If the next competition the conditions are great, I'm jumping really well and the bar goes up to five metres, I will not be hesitating; I will be wanting to jump it," she told RadioLIVE.
"At the same time, I'm not getting ahead of myself and I don't want to become inpatient or rush anything. I'm hoping to have a lot of competitions this season so there's no pressure to be trying to do it immediately."
McCartney refused to let her injuries get the best of her, and instead devoted her time to her technique.
She credited her performance in Germany to her time spent away from the runway, which saw her go back to a more familiar run-up.
"The gains that we've been making in training and over the last six months is actually coming out in competition and I'm actually seeing all the work I've been doing in training," she said.
"All the other training I was doing was technical and I was getting stronger in the gym, and that was all really helping, so now that I'm finally back into the flow of things - I'm not injured, I'm healthy - everything is going well.
"I've just gone back to a slightly longer run-up and it is the run-up that I actually used at the Rio Olympics.
"It's not the longest run-up I've ever used and I do want to keep pushing my run-up longer, but at the moment, the 14-step run-up is working really well."
The five-metre clearance is no mean feat and only three people have done it in women's pole vault history.
McCartney is relishing the challenge and isn't letting the significance of the jump get to her ahead of her next meet in Lausanne.
"I've jumped it twice in two different competitions so I'm getting used to jumping at the bar now. I just have to clear it.
"You want it to seem like just another jump because you don't want too much adrenaline [to] change things and force it and freak out.
"I have to just attack it like it's any other jump."
Newshub.
