McTaggart leaps to lifetime best
New Zealand pole vaulter Olivia McTaggart has produced the performance of her career, winning the Diamond League event at London's Olympic Stadium.
In front of a sold-out crowd of 60,000 McTaggart leapt to a new lifetime best, clearing 4.73 metres to claim the victory on a countback.
McTaggart won the event ahead of one of the strongest pole vault fields assembled this season including hometown hero Molly Caudery, the 2024 world indoor champion, and American Katie Moon, the 2020 Olympic Champion and the 2022 and 2023 World Champion.
The 4.73m vault eclipses her previous best of 4.71m, which she recorded just five days ago in Switzerland.
The height is also the World Athletics Championships "Entry Standard", all but securing her spot on Tokyo for the World Championships in September, pending official selection from Athletics New Zealand.
While four competitors cleared 4.73m, McTaggart was the only one do to so on her second attempt, with Moon, her fellow American Emily Grove, and Switzerland's Angelica Moser all requiring three attempts at that height.
Alongside McTaggart, the four remaining athletes all fell short of clearing the next height in the progression of 4.84m, leaving the Diamond League crown to McTaggart.
The Auckland-based vaulter has been training and living in Loughborough, in the United Kingdom, for several months while she competes on the European circuit.
The Diamond League circuit enjoys a brief hiatus over the next few weeks before roaring back in to life again on August 16 in Silesia, Poland.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Deans confident on eve of world champs
Relaxed looks good on Caitlin Deans. The Dunedin swimmer had a national championships to remember in May when she swam four personal-best times, collected four medals and shattered an Otago record. She claimed bronze in the women's freestyle 200m and 400m, silver in the 800m and gold in the 1500m, slashing nearly 6sec off the Otago record she set in April with a time of 16min 12.18sec. It punched her ticket to her fourth long-course world championships in Singapore as part of a 12-strong New Zealand team. The Paris Olympian will compete in the 800m and 1500m at the meeting which gets under way on Sunday. She also swam under the world qualifying time for the 400m but only two athletes from each country can swim in an event at the world championships. "Really excited to be heading off to my fourth world champs," Deans said. "I don't think the excitement ever dulls, no matter how many times you've been before." Heading into the national championships, Deans had no expectation of where she would finish and was taken aback by her results. "Honestly, it took me by surprise. "I didn't quite expect to be hitting the times that I did at nationals, so I think that gave me a lot of confidence leading up to this meet and confidence in getting a good training block under my belt before worlds." Maybe taking the pressure off suits the 25-year-old. "Nothing that I can think of that was any different. "Probably just more relaxed than usual, because it was my first time having a big break post-Olympics out of the water. "Not having that expectation on myself about how I was going to go probably plays a part in it." Deans made history during her first Olympic campaign. She was part of the women's 4x200m freestyle relay team in Paris alongside former Dunedin swimmer Erika Fairweather, Eve Thomas and Laticia Transom. They were the first Kiwi women's relay team to make an Olympic final, finishing eighth in a stacked field. "Going to the Olympics was pretty surreal. It's something that I've dreamed of since I was a little kid, so to actually fulfil that ... I don't think it's sunk in and I'm not sure if it ever will. "The Olympics is just something else. It's so different to anything else we do, and to experience that is something I'll be forever grateful for." That experience, alongside having raced at three previous world championships, helps the long-distance specialist as she dives into the pool. "It definitely helps and plays a big part. "The more exposure you can get to the international racing scene, the better, and it starts to normalise those big names. "Obviously having an Olympics under the belt helps with that." Working alongside experienced Dunedin coach Lars Humer also helped her development. "Lars bring with him a lot of experience. Obviously I've worked with him for a long time now, so I'm very lucky." Deans is looking forward to putting her best foot forward at the world championships and getting back to racing, not just for herself but for her support network. "I've had a lot of people support me in multiple different ways to get to this world champs, whether it's been their time, or financially, all the work that they've put in to help me get there. "I'm just hoping I can do them, and myself, really proud." Auckland-based Fairweather, the defending women's freestyle 400m world champion, will also race in Singapore, alongside Olympian Lewis Clareburt. Olympian Hazel Ouwehand qualified in the butterfly but made herself unavailable.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
AI influencer Mia Zelu stuns Wimbledon with lifelike Instagram posts
The model, who bills herself as a 'digital storyteller' and 'AI influencer', captioned one picture: 'Still not over the event … but the party's a whole other game.' She asked her thousands of followers, who often leave compliments and answers in her comment section: 'Which Wimbledon match was your fave?' Another post portrayed the tennis influencer watching a match on what appeared to be Centre Court, where A-listers rub shoulders with royalty every summer. The AI-generated model presents a hyper-realistic front, coupled with human-like feelings and thoughts expressed in her captions. Photo / AI-generated Influencers have been more prominent in SW19's star-studded crowd in recent years, with glamorous tennis 'WAG' Morgan Riddle taking centre-stage this month. The partner of Taylor Fritz, the American professional, Riddle championed Wimbledon's sporty chic aesthetic with viral posts across her social media platforms from the courtside. The former model was profiled in Netflix's Break Point series in 2023, in which she became known for her 'tennis-core' chic. The New York Times later dubbed her 'the most famous woman in men's tennis'. Morgan Riddle, partner of Taylor Fritz, the American tennis pro, is a real person. Photo / Getty Images It seems Zelu, whose creator remains unknown, may be aiming to capitalise on the same trend with her picture-perfect, elegant outfits and flowing blonde hair. Despite disclosing the use of AI in her bio, the model was inundated with admirers who took to the platform commenting 'will you marry me' and 'you look stunning'. She even has a brunette 'sister' named Ana, who has amassed 266,000 followers on her own page. In one post, appearing to be at the French Open, Zelu's pictures on court were captioned, arguably misleadingly: 'Pure sunshine and good vibes! Soaking up every bit of this energy … Which photo is your favourite?' Generative AI in the entertainment industry It comes after Netflix said it had used the controversial technology in one of its TV shows for the first time. Ted Sarandos, the streaming giant's co-chief executive, said visual effects were created by generative AI, which produces videos and images based on human-inputted prompts, in one of its original series. It was used to create a scene of a building collapsing in The Eternaut, the Argentine science fiction show. Sarandos said the technology had allowed the show's production to finish the scenes at a lower cost and 10 times faster than if they had used traditional special effects tools. Generative AI could be useful for productions with smaller budgets in the long term, but remains controversial in the entertainment world, however. Politicians and creatives are fighting to protect artists' copyright amid concerns that AI will create content using others' work without their consent. Some of Britain's most prominent artists and musicians have demanded more protections in the last year. They include Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, Billy Ocean, The Clash, Cat Stevens and Hans Zimmer. AI-generated content might prove more difficult to police within the sphere of social media. Meta has introduced an opt-in label for the content, but there have long been fears that AI image tools could be used to create highly convincing 'deepfakes' and images or videos that could help spread disinformation or influence elections. While Zelu might not present an electoral threat, the fake model's plausible captions and hyper-realistic images may have fooled even the most tech-savvy Wimbledon fans.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Venus Williams, 45, to end 16-month layoff in Washington
Venus Williams will make her return from a 16-month layoff at this week's DC Open, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion saying on Sunday she is not sure of anything beyond that. The 45-year-old American overcame a serious health scare last year and after enjoying a visit to Wimbledon decided
