Our top javelin thrower has been in rich form heading into the world champs starting this weekend, and hopes to beat her personal best and set herself for the Paris Olympics. Sarah Cowley Ross reports.
In her misery of missing out on the 2022 world athletics championships javelin final, thrower Tori Peeters forced herself to watch her fellow competitors who made the final 12 from the stands.
“My goal for Budapest [this year's world champs] is absolutely not to be watching the final from the grandstand” says 29-year-old Peeters.
The current national record holder says watching the final allowed her the chance to learn so much about her competitors and how they operated at a major championship level.
“I realised I was as physically capable as these gals but mentally I wasn’t at the same level," she says.
By her own admission, Peeters under-performed in Oregon - well down on her best, with a throw in qualifying of 53.67m to finish 24th.
“I had no experience and they’d all been on that stage before. I was just so green.”
The 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games representative, who works part-time in the sports department at St Peter's School, laughs that she’s still green but is better in her mental processes and how to adapt when things aren’t what she normally would expect.
“I’ve done a lot of work on my mental preparation, which was a huge hole for me, with my mental skills coach Jason Mckenzie," Peeters says. "There are always things to work on but I’m just so much more confident in how I approach a competition.”
And it’s showing, after throwing a personal best of 63.26m at the Yokohama Grand Prix, Japan, in May to extend her national record and launch herself to the eighth best throw of 2023.
Cementing this form in her Diamond League debut at the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial meeting in Poland, Peeters finished in third with her career second-best throw in a stacked field.
“There were heaps of distractions at the Diamond League so it was perfect for me to be able to practise my mental preparation.”
Her form, she says, is a shift resulting improved confidence. She's relishing the opportunity to show her long-held self-belief in her throwing.
“In the past, I’d really got my confidence from the gym. But I wouldn’t be able to transfer that into the javelin. I feel like I’m finally doing that," she says.
In May, Peeters changed her coaching team to work with former national javelin record holder and high-performance coach Kirsten Hellier (former coach to Olympic shot put champion Dame Valerie Adams).
Hellier represented New Zealand at two Commonwealth Games - 1990 in Auckland and 1994 in Victoria, Canada, collecting the silver medal. She also competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, being self-coached at the time.
“I’d only spoken to Kirsten one or two times before at the track and probably was just a ‘hello’," Peeters says. "Then I’m calling her out of the blue and asking for help.”
Peeters has long been a student of Hellier's craft. The coach has been respectful of the Peeters' career stage and what she achieved with former coach Debbie Strange.
“Essentially, she said to me 'we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water'.
“Debs and I were together for a long time and achieved a lot, from 57m to 62m. I’m so grateful to her in the stage she played in my throwing career.”
While Hellier is known internationally for coaching the ‘heavy’ throws, she’s never stopped coaching javelin, often taking on high school athletes. She admits her passion and curiosity for javelin has always been alive.
“There are so many synergies between the throws. You just have to walk further to retrieve the implement in the javelin but, outside of that, it’s pretty similar,” says Hellier.
“The difference comes with the personalities of athletes.”
What’s impressed Hellier about Peeters in the short space of time they’ve been working together has been her level of commitment to be a world-class athlete, not just a world-class javelin thrower.
“You can see there’s a real commitment and focus, detail to attention as to what that looks like for her physically, mentally and spiritually," she says.
Hellier is with Peeters in Montpellier for the Athletics New Zealand team pre-camp in the final stages of preparation before qualifying rounds for the javelin on August 23 and the final on August 25.
Not wanting to break her hoodoo of announcing an athlete’s goal publicly, Hellier says she’s excited for Peeters in Budapest because she’s currently among the best throwers in the world.
“She’s going to be stepping into the field of play with a renewed resurgence of confidence.”
For Peeters, it’s about using Budapest to move on from Eugene and onto Paris, while staying present in the moment competing against the world’s best.
“I want to throw a personal best in Budapest. Ideally over 64m because I have a long-standing bet with my strength and conditioning coach, Angus Ross, which he needs to pay out on when I do throw that far,” Peeters laughs.
A throw over 64m will also meet the World Athletics qualifying distance for the Paris 2024 Olympics, and would set Peeters up for nomination for selection.
With momentum in performance, confidence in her mental preparation and the distances to match, Peeters is excited to be part of a large Athletics NZ Team (19 athletes) heading into the championships from August 19 to 28.
“It doesn’t matter what your personal best is at the end of the day, it’s about who can bring what they’re capable of, in the conditions on the day, in the location at the given time," she says.
“I’m pumped.”
