High jump star Nicola McDermott, who has Croatian heritage, has become the first Australian woman to break the two-metre barrier.
Nicola, who will compete in her first Olympic Games this year, achieved something no other Australian woman has managed to achieve on Sunday when she cleared 2.00m at the Australian Track and Field Championships in Sydney.
The 24-year-old not only set a national record, but she also beat the previous Oceania record of 1.99m set by Eleanor Patterson in February 2020.
“In landing on the bags I didn’t see anything before I heard the roar of the crowd, it was as if time stopped as I looked at the bar still standing. The jump was just as I’d visualised for years. It had finally become a reality. I’d broken the 2m barrier,” she said after the record jump.