Peeters ends season with record

Tori Peeters.
Tori Peeters.
Australia has been kind to Tori Peeters this year.

The Taieri javelin thrower has twice broken her  New Zealand record over there in the past two months, boding well for bigger events coming up.

After managing 55.73m at the Nitro athletics series in Melbourne, she threw 56.74m in Sydney at the Australian national championships last week.

"It was funny. I let it go and I just saw the flight of it and thought, yep, that’s going," she said.

"You can just tell when some of them sort of sit in the air for a little bit longer.

"The better throws always feel effortless and I’d thrown it and thought, that felt easy —  I should have tried harder.

"But it doesn’t quite work that way.

"It did feel good and then seeing the distance pop up on the board, I was pretty excited."

To finish only second at the New Zealand  championships had been a blip  in March, so she was pleased to finish the season with a strong throw.

The 22-year-old  has  returned to Dunedin to continue training over the winter. The World University Games  in August is her next target.

She has  not fully  planned her preparations for the Games in Taipei, although she would look to do some competitions in the lead-up. There would be meetings in Townsville, which does not start its season until April due to the summer heat, which could be an option.

"I’m feeling really confident going into world uni games with my current performances.

"I’m really looking forward to it.

"That’s what, I think, has made me so determined to come back and put in a good hard block of training and try to get the result at the end.

"[I am] definitely looking to bring back a medal. That would be the icing on the cake for the season.

"Obviously, you want to throw further as well, but with the conditions anything can happen."

Qualifying for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games was still on her radar, although she would need to keep improving to get there.

"[The standards] are a little bit higher than what I’m throwing, sort of more towards the 60m mark.

"But, I mean, I felt like there was more in the tank when I was throwing in Sydney.

"I feel like I just didn’t quite hit the throw like I could have, so you never know what that means.

"I definitely want to qualify for the Commonwealth Games. That would be incredible.

"With it only being over in Australia it would be awesome and knowing that I throw well in Aussie, as well, is something else."

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