New Zealand pole vaulter Eliza McCartney has failed to reach the qualifying mark for the Tokyo Olympics at her latest meet at Auckland's AUT Millennium facility.
McCartney came into Saturday's event needing to meet the 4.70 metre qualifying mark but on her first jump attempt she pulled out during her run-up due to injury and couldn't continue.
The failed attempt on Saturday came a week after she couldn't reach the mark at another qualifying event also held at the Millennium facility, where her injury hampered her performance.
McCartney will have one final opportunity to qualify for Tokyo at the third and final meet at the Millennium facility next Saturday.
McCartney was disappointed with her continued problems with injury but was hopeful that she still had one good jump in her to qualify for the Olympics.
"I had a pretty decent competition last weekend and I was able to deal with some of the problems I've been having, but today was not going to be one of those days," McCartney told Newshub.
"We did the obvious thing and if my run is really being affected then we stopped and that's what happened today.
"It just gives me a better shot for the last competition we have next weekend."
After bursting onto the scene with a bronze medal in the pole vault at the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016, McCartney's recent years have been dogged by numerous injuries.
The Aucklander has established herself as one of the top exponents of her craft in the world, winning silver at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and threatening the five-metre barrier that only two women have ever cleared.
But she has barely been able to stay on the track over recent years, plagued by Achilles tendon and hamstring injuries that cut short her 2019 world championship campaign and her 2020 and 2021 campaigns.
The Achilles injury she has been battling over the past two years has continued to plague her and she admitted the next week will be all about rest and recovery as she prepares for her last chance to qualify for Tokyo.
"I have been spending a lot less time training than I normally do just to give myself the best chance to compete at this series of three," she says. "Most of it is keeping my leg up and doing some activation stuff but not a lot and it's kind of cruise control until the next competition, where I will try to give it my best shot.
"The first one was interesting because I didn't know what was going to happen and I didn't know how I was going to handle it.
"I think I handled it a lot better than I was expecting so that was really, really cool but it was tough to get through and I was feeling very tense."
McCartney has been focusing on her enjoyment during these events as she has struggled over the past year with her emotions.
"For this competition I wanted to enjoy it more because at the end of the day I really want to enjoy these meets because it is a long shot for me," McCartney tells Newshub.
"If I'm not enjoying it, it feels like a bit of a waste of time all together so that was my goal.
"It has been a rollercoaster especially this year. I've had a lot of ups and downs and points where I've felt I can't keep pushing on with this.
"In some ways this next week is a bit easier because it's only one more week where I have to give it everything I've got where I either qualify or not."
Fellow pole vault Olympic hopeful Olivia McTaggart fared better than McCartney but couldn't reach the qualifying mark.
She was able to clear 4.25 metres but when the bar was raised to 4.60 metres she wasn't able to clear it on her three attempts meaning she'll also have one final attempt next Saturday to qualify for Tokyo.
