BALLARAT'S Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kathryn Mitchell remains agonisingly short of an Olympic qualification, despite dominating the Oceania Invitational event held on the Gold Coast on Saturday.
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Mitchell threw a season personal best of 63.50 metres, to easily claim the victory in the women's javelin event, but the distance remained just half-a-metre short of the Olympic qualifying mark of 64 metres.
Athletics Australia confirmed that despite still being just short of the qualifying distance, the 38-year-old remains firmly in selectors minds with Australia able to take up to three athletes in each event for the Tokyo Olympic Games which start next month.
An Athletics Australia spokesperson said Mitchell was inside the top 32 in the world, which could put her in position for discretionary selection should she hold her position over the next 10 days.
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"To be nominated to the AOC for selection for the games, you need to either get the auto qualifying standard, or compete at five events and have a high enough ranking at the end of the qualifying period," the spokesperson said.
"The women's javelin in Tokyo will allow for the top 32 athletes to compete and with 10 days until the end of the qualifying period, Kathryn is ranked 27.
"We can only take three athletes in each event to the games... (world champion) Kelsey-Lee (Barber) got selected early 2020 through auto nomination but Kathryn and Mackenzie Little will need to wait until the end of the period, and will need a discretionary nomination."
This season Mitchell has taken out the national title with a throw of 63.34 metres where she defeated Barber and has maintained her solid form throughout.
Her throw on Saturday was the 12th best of any female in the world this year. Poland's Maria Andrejczyk has the longest throw in 2021 of 71.40m, which she threw in Croatia on May 9. To date, only nine women have met the qualifying standard.