Mackenzie Little, the Sydney registrar who's combining her medical ambitions with an athletics dream, believes her Diamond League javelin silver in China was just what the doctor ordered at the start of her Olympic build-up.
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The world bronze medallist, up against a host of her potential rivals in Paris, was delighted with her opening salvo in Suzhou on Saturday, as she finished second, only being pipped by a last-round throw from Japan's world champion Haruka Kitaguchi.
The 27-year-old registrar at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital, who found full-time athletics training not to her liking, began with an imposing 61.04m effort before going on to record a season's best 62.12m in the second.
Little looked on course for the gold in her first competition since winning the national title until Kitaguchi hurled a clutch 62.97m effort last time out.
"I'm happy to come out tonight and perform as I did because I have a sneaking suspicion that most of these girls will be in the Olympic final," Little said.
"I wanted to beat them! To throw 60m straight off the plane is my baseline, I know I can do that. That is Plan A, and that is really encouraging."
Little's fellow Australian Kathryn Mitchell didn't register a mark after retiring from the competition in the second round.
A decent night for potential Australian Olympians featured national 5000m champion Rose Davies clocking 14min 47.78sec to get inside the 14:52.00 Olympic qualifying standard.
The Tokyo Olympian became the third fastest Australian of all-time over the distance, taking 10 seconds off her lifetime best set at February's Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne.
"Tonight is closer to where I want to be for this year but I'm not there yet," said Davies. "Although not selected yet, tonight means that I can focus on best preparing myself to run well at the Olympics rather than chasing that qualifier."
Morgan McDonald (seventh, 13:18.65) and Jack Rayner (ninth, 13:19.57) also raced to a pair of top-10 finishes in the men's 5000, in a race won by Ethiopian Selemon Barega in 12:55.68.
Cara Feain-Ryan, looking for a maiden Olympic berth , was 11th in the women's 3000m steeplechase with 9:31.68 for 11th place, while Olympic finalist Brooke Buschkuehl leapt 6.19m in the women's long jump, missing out on the top-eight by just one centimetre.
Australian Associated Press
