Eliza McCartney of New Zealand in the pole vault (© Getty Images)
Competing on her home track, Eliza McCartney broke the Oceania record in the pole vault, topping 4.82m at the Auckland Track Challenge on Sunday (26).
With her leap, the Olympic bronze medallist, 20, added one centimetre to Alana Boyd's Oceania record, and two to her own New Zealand record. Her performance is also an early season outdoor world lead.
"I was super happy to get that," said McCartney, speaking with Stuff.co.nz. "Not only because it's my all-time PB, it's also a massive PB for the run-up I was on."
McCartney used a shorter 12-step approach, four fewer than her standard run-up. She ended the competition with three tries at 4.90m, but said she was emotionally and physically drained by the time she resumed jumping.
"I think I would have been able to give 4.90m a much better crack if I hadn't had all that emotion in the competition beforehand."
Alysha Newman of Canada was second with 4.50m.
Crouser extends world lead
Meanwhile, USA's Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser extended his own world lead and streak of 22m-plus early season competitions with an impressive 22.15m effort, a 10-centimetre improvement on his world lead and New Zealand all-comers' record he set a week ago in Christchurch.
Competing against Olympic bronze medallist Tom Walsh before a large vocal crowd for the second week in a row, Crouser dominated the event, sending four of this six efforts beyond the 22-metre line.
Opening with 21.71m, Crouser improved to 22.03m in the second round, to 22.08m in the fourth, before capping the event with back-to-back 22.15m throws in rounds five and six.
"I was just hoping to match Christchurch here and managed to be really consistent," Crouser told Stuff.co.nz.
"This is probably my most consistent meet outside of the Olympics and it's still really early so I'm really, really happy."
Walsh finished second again with a consistent series of his own. Opening with 21.58m, he reached 21.67m in round three and 21.80 in the fourth, another season's best.
Jacko Gill was third with 20.92m, just nine centimetres shy of his personal best set in Wellington five weeks ago.
Elsewhere, Brett Robinson of Australia won the 5000m in 13:22.93.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
