Big season ahead for golden arm Tori Peeters

For Tori Peeters, the black singlet with the silver fern on it means many things.

One the one hand, it means achievement - because despite dominating javelin domestically for a decade, she has never worn the coveted New Zealand representative uniform in a senior competition.

On the other, it is about opportunity - the chance to prove herself on the international stage, to prove herself worthy of the big occasion.

Peeters earnt that right in early March, breaking the national record with a throw of 62.40m, sailing well past the 61.50m mark required to automatically qualify for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this year.

Her world ranking should also put her firmly in the selection frame for the world championships in Oregon, two weeks before that.

It’s a markedly different situation from 2021 when she was heartbreakingly left out of the New Zealand team for the Tokyo Olympics. Having been provisionally named in the squad, but then asked to mount a late qualification campaign in Australia, it was an extremely tough time for Peeters, her coach Debbie Strange and those around them.

“To be honest, after last year it was pretty devastating not getting to go to Tokyo but we’ve put in a lot of work from then and we’ve learnt a lot,” Peeters told SouthlandSport.

“When you get presented with that black singlet you know the hard work is paying off. I think that’s more so what I’m looking forward to, is wearing it and wearing it with pride and hopefully putting out a good performance as well.”

The next few months will be the biggest of Peeters’ career.

They include the Australian track and field championships in late March/early April, followed by the Brisbane Track Classic and then a really exciting opportunity to take part in the invites-only Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo.

“It’s funny, the doors can open pretty quickly when you have a good throw. It’s nice having done an auto qualifier for the Commonwealth Games - it’s been a different feeling being on the other side of the qualifying standard quite early in the piece. It’s a position that we’ve not really been in before. We don’t necessarily need to keep chasing things now, we can make decisions based on preparing for the championships and putting our best foot forward,” she said.

It’s too much to say that being invited to compete in Tokyo will be redemptive for Peeters, but it will offer some much needed experience in terms of travelling overseas and competing against some of the big names of the international javelin community, including good friend Kelsey-Lee Barber, the 2019 world champion and Olympic bronze medallist.

“We are looking at that as a bit of experience for me, to compete in a big setting - we’ll be in the Olympic stadium and it will be a really good learning curve. We are really excited and just looking forward to taking all these opportunities to learn and to put it out there and see how far we can throw,” she said.

“It’s a couple of levels down from the Diamond Leagues, but it’s by far the highest level I’ll have competed at. It’s awesome that I’ve been invited and you have to be good enough to go, so it’s nice to be in that category. I know a couple of the Aussie girls have been invited to, so it will be cool to be learning the ropes with them.”

After Tokyo, Peeters will return home to Cambridge for two weeks of preparation before the Oceania championships in Mackay, Queensland before heading to the world championships in the United States and then onto Birmingham.

Being able to plan with as much surety as it is possible to do in a Covid-world is a luxury which has been created by Peeters’ early season form.

“We always go into the season wanting to put some good throws out there and some good distances, but it was really nice to get a couple of 60m throws out there quite early in the piece. I had one in December here in Hamilton and it wasn’t really expected, it was a bit of a surprise and great for the confidence. It was great to have a couple of 60s on New Zealand soil because all my good throws seem to be in Aussie.

“There’s some sessions where I just know with how I’m moving on the track and how the javelin is going, I know what sort of space I’m in going into competitions. We never measure at training, which I think is a really good thing for me. There are so many elements to javelin and one of those is to be relaxed - as soon as you put a number on it and you try to throw the sh&t out of it, it often doesn’t help the situation.”

However, Peeters admits that it is sometimes tempting to know just what sort of distance she is throwing behind the scenes.

“There are some times when I know I’ve done a good one and I’ll look over to Deb and think, ‘ooh, that was a good one’ and you just let out a bit of excitement and it’s tempting to get a tape measure out sometimes. At the end of the day you don’t win competitions in training and you just want to get a nice surprise in the competition.

“We go by rhythm and how we hear my feet on the runway, the flight of the javelin, those sorts of things. We’ve learnt a lot in the last couple of years, in terms of my strengths and weaknesses in training and areas of improvement for my technical model. We’ve started to find a recipe for me in terms of my training and what seems to help click for me.”

And in this biggest of all seasons, there is the opportunity for big results.

Having gone through the disappointment of 2021, Peeters just wants to continue to put out performances that she can be proud of.

“For me at the world champs I’d love to make the final, love to be in the top 10 and be there with a good throw, not because everyone else has had a bit of a shocker. Commonwealth Games, it’s to be on the podium. I think I’ve got a really good shot at being on that podium, all going well (if I can) stay fit and healthy and keep training well.”