Athletics: Kiwi pole vaulter Eliza McCartney will miss Commonwealth Games to target 2024 Paris Olympics

Kiwi pole vaulter Eliza McCartney will miss the upcoming Birmingham Commonwealth Games, but her sights are firmly on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

McCartney has been plagued by injuries since her shock bronze-medal performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, failing to qualify for Tokyo with a troublesome achilles injury.

But after some much-needed soulsearching and developing an entirely new approach to training more than 10 years into her career, she's confident her story isn't finished just yet.

"Having all of that questioned sent me into a bit of an identity crisis, in the sense of I don't know what I'm doing or who I am, if I can't achieve the goals I thought I'd have for years to come.

"It just seeps into everything in your life and brings everything down. It makes everything feel difficult and depressing.

"I've just been working on myself, we've put our head down and are just trying to make progress that is needed now, so I can be back vaulting next year.

"A bit of luck has to come into that in 2024 - I will be feeling fit, strong, healthy, competing at the top level, competing internationally and feeling ready for an Olympics.

"I'm on track to possibly compete by the end of the year, definitely the domestic season starting next year and hopefully a great European season over summer next year, and qualify nice and early."

McCartney, who took silver at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, reveals her training has been completely overhauled, with more days off, and much more intensity and focus on movements, even learning how to walk again.

She admits it wasn't an easy transition, but has helped her find her identity again.

"It didn't feel like high performance," she said. "It didn't feel like vaulting, because it wasn't what I've done for my whole career. 

"It's gone better than expected. It's been really exciting and it's made me feel like an athlete again.

"It's unfinished business and I know, if I can overcome this, I can be a good athlete and get back to where I was, if not, better.

"I haven't reached my potential, I know I can jump higher than I have before.

"It was a no-brainer, why not give it another go and not leave any regrets. I'm much happier as a person and much more confident about being an athlete - that also seeps into the rest of my life and the other Elizas that I am as well.

"There's been a lot of tears in the past, but none recently."