KATHRYN Mitchell will have a bit of work to do to find form as she looks to defend her Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham, starting next week, after missing the final at the World Athletics Championships.
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Mitchell landed just one of her three qualifying throws, on Thursday morning Australian time, finishing 25th in the qualifying.
Missing the first two throws set Mitchell on the back foot. Instead of gradually being able to build her form into the heat, she was forced to put everything into her final attempt, which fell six metres short of what was required to make the final.
Her one throw still ranks her as the seventh best in the Commonwealth, but was more than four metres below her season's best, showing there is plenty of room for improvement as she heads towards the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
If Mitchell is able to recapture her season's best form for the Commonwealth Games of more than 57 metres, it should see her inside the top five given qualifying results of other competitors from Commonwealth nations in Oregon.
Mitchell, a veteran of multiple Olympic, world championships and the reigning Commonwealth Games gold medalist is on the comeback trail after taking an extended period off after her sixth placing at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year.
The World Championships were just her second international event this season.
Teammates, including Olympic bronze medalist Kelsey-Lee Barber and Olympic finalist Mackenzie Little both managed to qualify for the final.
Barber was solid in fifth position after a throw of 61.27m, one of just seven athletes to break the 60m barrier and Little squeezed in as the final qualifier with her throw of 59.06m.
But the Australians will both have to be on their best after Japanese athlete Haruka Kitaguchi threw a season's best of 64.32m with her first attempt to be a clear frontrunner for gold ahead of Chinese athlete Shiling Liu who threw 63.86m, also on her first throw.
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