Casterton's tight-knit community will be getting right behind their javelin star this week.
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Kathryn Mitchell, who grew up in the small town west of Hamilton, will step onto Tokyo's Olympic stadium for the javelin throw heats on Tuesday.
Mitchell, one of three Australians in the field, which also includes world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber, will compete alongside Barber in the second heat of the day, starting at 11.50am.
To be guaranteed a place in the final, which will be held on Friday night, Mitchell will need to throw 63 metres, or be among the top 12 rankings after the heats.
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Based on this season's results, Mitchell is right on the cusp, having thrown the 12th longest of any athlete in the world in 2021.
If she is able to produce a season's best, she will automatically qualify for the final, given she threw 63.50m on June 12 on the Gold Coast.
Mitchell, who turned 39 last month, is competing at her third Olympics. Both times previously she has made the final, finishing ninth in London and sixth in Rio.
It has been a difficult 18 months for the popular Eureka Athletics Club star, who has had to do a lot of her training without her coach and partner Uwe Hohn, the only man to have ever thrown a javelin more than 100 metres.
Hohn - who is India's javelin coach - and Mitchell were due to meet up in Europe leading into the Olympics, but Hohn got stranded in India when the country's COVID-19 second wave hit earlier this year. The pair will get together for the first time in 20 months during the Olympics.
"He gets to Tokyo about the same time as I do so that will be great," Mitchell told AAP in the lead up to the Olympics.
"But to be honest we don't really know how it's all going to play out and I've got to have a chat to our medical team about that.
"We have to keep our distance from everybody so we haven't made any plans until we get there.
"What I can say is I think it's going to be weird."
Four women this season have thrown 66m, headed by Poland's Maria Andrejczyk (71.40m).
Mitchell's Commonwealth Games best of 68.92m - which won her gold - would have won her a gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
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