As Ballarat's Kathryn Mitchell builds towards a hopeful third Olympics, she is coming to terms with the fact she is unlikely to see her partner and coach again before heading to Tokyo.
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The javelin star last saw her partner and coach Uwe Hohn 18 months ago and it is not known just how long the couple will be forced to be apart.
Hohn is currently stuck in India as the country goes into lockdown during the devastating second wave of COVID-19 that is seeing upwards of 350,000 new cases confirmed each day.
As the national coach of the Indian national side, he was due to flight out to Europe where he and Mitchell would meet up.
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But that never happened and there is now no timeframe on him being able to leave the country.
"It's been hard. They were due to go to a training camp in Turkey the day that they [the Indian government] announced they were locked down. So all that was cancelled and they are trying to get to Europe but they can't," Mitchell told The Age.
"So that has been hard. It's 18 months since I've seen him ... it's not unusual for us to be apart for chunks of time, but not this long. It is normally a couple of months and then we would meet up in Europe somewhere, but obviously that all got shut down and it has all gone on and on.
"I have been training by myself, the Victorian Institute of Sport have been amazing, my support team is based here so that has been great and keeping me going, but it has been hard with him over there and my mum has been quite ill as well the last 12 months.
"So it has been very difficult. But what do you do? These things happen. One of the hardest things, as an athlete, is you are used to being in control and these events happen and they are completely out of your control."
Mitchell is not yet guaranteed a berth in the Australian team, despite some impressive form of late.
She threw 63.34 metres in Sydney earlier this month, leaving her just 66cm shy of achieving an Olympic A qualifying distance of 64 metres.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist said after that event she was confident of gaining the extra distance needed before the Olympics.
Mitchell was raised in Casterton, attended Ballarat High School and still competes for the Eureka Athletics Club.
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