Last night, she demonstrated that she is on target with a consistent series of throws in the twilight meeting at the Caledonian Ground.
McCaw (27) threw more than 47m with her four legitimate throws, and won the senior women's event with 47.93m.
It was 7m short of her three-year-old Otago record, but it satisfied her coach Raylene Bates, who is confident McCaw can retain her national title in Auckland at the end of the month.
McCaw missed the solid winter training while she was in England, but it was valuable because she now knows that we are on the right track, Bates said.
McCaw won the senior women's title in 2005 at Wanganui and last year at Inglewood. But she will need to throw between 52m and 53m to keep her title.
‘‘We have been playing catch-up all season and she is not quite there,'' Bates said. ‘‘But it is coming right.''
McCaw spent time training with top English throwing coach Jamie Bath in London. He coaches Lorraine Shaw, who won the Commonwealth Games title at Melbourne two years ago.
McCaw, who holds the Otago record of 54.58m, used the twilight meeting as a dress rehearsal for the national championships in two weeks.
McCaw had a consistent sequence of throws: foul, 47.93m, foul, 47.82m, 47.55m, 47.32m.
Anna Harvey (Taieri) won the women's aged 17 to 19 hammer throw with 43.05m.
She is also trained by Bates, and will be defending her national junior title at Auckland.
Two other athletes trained by Bates also impressed in the shot put. Keiran Fowler (Taieri), the national junior decathlon champion, won the men's aged 17-19 shot put with 14.34m, and clubmate Jerram Huston the senior men's event with 13.99m.
Todd Bates (13) won the boys' aged 12 and 13 shot put (8.11m) and hammer throw (22.52m).
Anna Smythe (Hill City), who has recovered from her hamstring problems, won the women's 100m (11.89sec) and 200m (24.19sec) double. Two weeks ago, she finished fifth in the Australian championship 100m.
The other impressive sprinting performances came from Todd Mansfield (Taieri) who won the men's 100m (10.79sec), Todd Johnston (Ariki) the boys' aged 15-16 100m (11.57sec) and Devon Helm (Ariki) the girls' aged 15-16 100m (13.06sec).
