Tune in Southland, our 'spear thrower' has world's best in her sight
“My goal for Budapest [this year's world champs] is absolutely not to be watching the final from the grandstand."
Javelin thrower Tori Peeters will again test herself on the world stage when she competes at the World Athletics Championships in Hungary on Wednesday night.
The Southland product will line up in the women’s javelin qualification which is scheduled to start at 8.20pm [NZT] on Wednesday night. There is TV coverage on SKY Sport 7.
The target will be qualifying for the final to be held at 6.20am on Saturday morning [NZT].
Peeters missed qualifying in the final 12 at the World Championships 12 months earlier in Oregon.
“My goal for Budapest [this year's world champs] is absolutely not to be watching the final from the grandstand,” Peeters told Newsroom’s Sarah Cowley Ross in the lead-up to the World Championships.
Peeters is arguably one of New Zealand’s most resilient sportspeople given the obstacles she has faced in her career, only to continue in her quest to be the world’s best.
Peeters controversially missed selection for the New Zealand team to compete at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
The 29-year-old has remained focused with her sights on the 2024 Olympic Games.
She has been inform this year which included breaking her own New Zealand women’s javelin record in an impressive outing in Japan at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Yokohama.
Peeters held the record at 62.40m, which she threw at the 2022 New Zealand Championships.
However, she increased that to 63.26m at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix event.
That 63.26m throw was also enough for a second-place finish in the impressive field of throwers, including beating Australian Kelsey-Lee Barber who won the 2022 World Championship title.
Barber threw 61.95m for a third-place finish in Japan.
Peeters grew up in Southland and was part of the successful Academy Southland programme.
She is now based in Waikato although still works with Invercargill-based mental skills coach Jason McKenzie.
Peeters is also backed by the likes of the Invercargill-based SBS Bank and Mataura Licensing Trust.