Athletics: Eliza McCartney back to full fitness for world champs

Eliza McCartney. Photo / Getty

Pole vaulter Eliza McCartney is confident her Achilles injury problem is behind her, and just in time for the world athletics championships.

McCartney, bronze medallist at last year's Rio Olympics, has had what she calls a ''compromised" preparation for the worlds beginning in London's cavernous Olympic Stadium this weekend after an Achilles problem hindered her Diamond League plans.

She finished third in the Rome event in early June with a 4.75m leap -- .07cm below her personal best set in Auckland early this year - but then struggled in breezy conditions in the Oslo and Stockholm meets before skipping the London leg of the international circuit event as she tried to rehab the niggling injury.

McCartney bounced back with victory at the Night of Athletics in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium last week, vaulting 4.61m.

"It went really well in the end," McCartney said from London last night.

"It was wet and cold and I took every single height that came along so I got a lot of jumps in the end, and my Achilles handled it really well. I didn't feel it at all during the entire competition."

McCartney believes that despite the layoff she's in "a really good space at the moment, and in a place I can compete.

"There shouldn't be any surprises and fingers crossed it should go well.

"Even if it's a little bit sore it's nothing I can't deal with."

The big guns of the event are expected to line up in London, including the two women who headed the 20-year-old North Shore athlete in Rio, Greek Ekaterini Stefanidi and American Sandi Morris.

McCartney's event is on Saturday morning (NZT).