Townsville athlete Tori West confirmed for heptathlon at Paris Olympic Games
A fourth North Queensland athlete has officially punched her ticket for Paris, after qualifying for the Australian Olympic heptathlon team. We spoke to her exclusively from Poland:
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A fourth North Queensland athlete has officially punched her ticket for Paris after qualifying for the Australian Olympic heptathlon team.
Townsville local Tori West, 28, will don the green and gold in one of the Games’ most difficult events, which combines seven track and field events: 100m hurdles, 200m and 800m runs, high jump, shot put, long jump and West’s key event, the javelin throw.
After enduring the heartbreak of missing selection at the 2020 Tokyo Games and the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games, West said that pain had driven her to unlock new heights in performance within herself in time for Paris.
“It’s been a long road to get here,” West said.
“I started heptathlon properly in 2017 and in that time I’ve missed most of the major teams. I started late and didn’t have the experience of other girls. I always had the talent but I needed time to pull it all together. I missed both Commonwealth Games and I missed the last Olympics.
“To get here has taken a lot of resilience and taking those losses as lessons. I feel like this is the perfect time to debut.”
West, who has been preparing for the Games in Poland, said an emotional 1am (AEST) phone call to her mother in Australia had been the first time her achievement really hit home.
“I think the full excitement hasn’t really hit me yet because I have a lot of training to do, but I found out on Tuesday that I was in,” she said.
“I was pretty ecstatic, it was a crazy moment. I always knew this year was going to be the year, and then before my most recent comp I had this dream and this sense of knowing I just had this. To get the official notification I felt super excited, super grateful.
“When I found out it was 1am in the morning in Australia and I called my mum. She woke up and she cried, which was special. She’s a tough mum, in the military, and she was really happy.”
West thanked Olympic team coaches Eric Brown and Sam Lesie, and Gary Cairns, the local coach who first encouraged her to pursue heptathlon.
West was an all-rounder in athletics at Pimlico State High School when she first encountered Cairns, who went on to coach her to a national javelin championship 12 months later.
That event has formed the cornerstone of her Olympic medal dream.
“Heptathlon is mostly speed and power, you need a foundation in that, and javelin is my secret weapon,” West said.
“I can run and I can jump so I’m very good across the board, but javelin makes me more of a weapon. I want to go out there and my personal goal is to PB (personal best) in those conditions. If I pull my events together and lift on the day I have every chance.”
West joins Elle Armit (water polo), Steph Kershaw (hockey) and Breiana Whitehead (sailing) in North Queensland’s Olympic brigade.
Originally published as Townsville athlete Tori West confirmed for heptathlon at Paris Olympic Games
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