Kathryn Mitchell plans to keep competing to Tokyo — in her late 30s

ENJOYING the growth and success in her thirties she had expected in her twenties, Aussie javelin gold medallist Kathryn Mitchell says there are no plans to stop any time soon.

ENJOYING the growth and success in her thirties she had expected in her twenties, Aussie javelin gold medallist Kathryn Mitchell says there are no plans to stop any time soon.

Mitchell, 35, used permanent marker to put Tokyo 2020 in the diary on Thursday, the morning after claiming a breakthrough Commonwealth Games medal with a huge first throw on the Gold Coast.

ROLE MODEL: A generation following in Caslick’s footsteps

SMASHED: Stevens leaves record in wake on way to gold

Adding an Olympic gold medal in two years time is the big goal now and it’s not an unreasonable one given the context of Mitchell’s winning throw of 68.92m.

An emotional Kathryn Mitchell on the podium. Pic: AFP

That distance was not only the longest-travelled javelin in the world this year in a women’s competition, it’s the longest since way back in September 2013.

Only six women in history have ever thrown a javelin further and Mitchell’s 68.92m would have won the Rio Olympics by over two metres (Mitchell came sixth with a 64.36m).

Mitchell said the key to her mature-age success meeting German javelin legend Uve Hohn in 2010, when she was a struggling Aussie athlete unable to throw past 60 metres. Hohn — the only man to have thrown a javelin over 100 metres — began coaching her.

In action on the Gold Coast. Pic: AFP

“I gave myself to the London Olympics to get qualified and step up, and if I didn’t do that, that would have been the end. But 2012 ended up being my breakthrough year and it came just in time. I made the Olympic final and improved form then on,” Mitchell said.

“I suppose meeting him really turned my career upside down, in a great way. It turned from there. I really feel like I am having the career in my 30s that I probably expected to have in my 20s and as long as I can keep going now I will and make the most of it.”

The last six months has been a “lonely” journey, however, with Hohn working in India and mostly coaching via emails.

Mitchell at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006.

“It is not easy and I do most of my training by myself,” Mitchell said.

“The circumstances aren’t as easy as everyone thinks. But we make it work and I send him videos and he sends me feedback. We have a really good support team around in place for the next couple of years to stabilise things and I think we will keep going in a good direction.”

Mitchell said working with sports psychologists had also been a huge help in her recent successes, and even as recently as the last month when an Achilles’ tendon injury blew up and caused pain during competition.

“It got pretty bad over the​ last few weeks and I had to manage that,” she said.

Originally published as Kathryn Mitchell plans to keep competing to Tokyo — in her late 30s