There’s no plans of stopping for new Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kathryn Mitchell, who is back home in Ballarat after realising a sporting dream.
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After winning the women’s javelin at the Gold Coast Games – and setting a new Australian record in the process – Mitchell now has sights set on achieving more glory at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Speaking to The Courier from her Lucas home on Monday, the 35-year-old said she is excited by what the future might hold.
“Obviously I wanted the results that I’ve had this season and knew that I could do it, but I suppose I didn’t think it would come up so quickly,” Mitchell said.
“The work I’d done with the sports psychologist (Mark Spargo) at the Victorian Institute of Sport has obviously been pivotal in that, so now it has brought a new level and I’m really excited…”
Mitchell has credited much of her impressive form to the work she has done with Spargo, which she started working with last year.
“Even though I threw a personal best last year, the season was really up and down and I was really on my way down,” Mitchell said.
“The world championships was kind of a disaster. He was team sports psychologist and just new. It was a bit of a crisis intervention that I met him.
“He’s based at the VIS, which is great, and I started to see him weekly since August last year.”
Since then, Mitchell has been able to break the national record set by Kim Mickle back in 2014 and better it twice, finally by throwing a new Commonwealth Games mark of 68.92m to claim gold.
“The results have been a little bit beyond what we expected. He’s excited, (my coach and partner) Uwe Hohn is excited, I’m excited for what the next little bit holds,” Mitchell said.
As for the near future, Mitchell said she planned on taking some time away from training and competition before tackling some events later in the year.