Tokyo quest thrown into disarray
Javelin thrower Tori Peeters is unlikely to be heading to Tokyo despite last week being named in a 15-strong athletics team for this year’s Olympic Games.
Peeters was announced in the team by the New Zealand Olympic Committee at a function at the AUT Millennium track in Auckland.
Peeters, who hails from Gore, was named alongside the likes of Olympic medallists Dame Valerie Adams, Tom Walsh, and Nick Willis. However, Peeters’ selection came with a condition tucked towards the bottom of the media release that revealed the team.
The condition was that she must throw a distance of 62m or more at specified Australian competitions before April 30 to maintain her place in the team.
The 26-year-old returned to New Zealand from Australia this week without making the qualification mark.
Peeters told Stuff yesterday that she was not available to speak to any media just yet.
Athletics New Zealand chief executive Peter Pfitzinger said Athletics New Zealand put forward athletes to NZOC, but it was ultimately the NZOC that had the final say over the selection of the team.
He referred questions on Peeters’ situation to the NZOC.
NZOC spokesperson Lewis Hampton pointed to the condition that Peeters was required to throw 62m or more at specified events in Australia when asked where Peeters stood in the selection process.
Peeters has a personal best of 62.04m, which she threw in Sydney last year, and it is a New Zealand record.
Corbin Strong is the only Southlander to date confirmed to compete at the Olympics in Tokyo.
Strong has been named in the track cycling team. Fellow Southland cyclist Nick Kergozou is a reserve.