Kelsey-Lee Barber will take the first steps on her journey to the Tokyo Olympic Games when she ends a six-month competition hiatus in Brisbane on Saturday.
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The two-time Commonwealth Games javelin medallist will make her comeback to competition against a tough field at the Queensland Track Classic.
It will be one of just two domestic events for Barber this season, who is hoping to earn starts in Europe and at the world championships in Qatar in September.
But she will go up against Commonwealth Games gold-medal winner Kathryn Mitchell and top Japanese athletes in Brisbane for her first real test since the Contintenal Cup.
"The training comes and goes so quickly, we had a great training block and I'm starting to see the base-line work come into my throws now," Barber said.
"It's nice to see it come through and I just hope to be able to put it into a full throw. The training we do are building blocks ... there's always an element of competition you can't replicate.
"But everything else there is to hopefully put it together. I threw my [personal best] in Brisbane last year, so hopefully I can channel that again and have a good night."
Barber will use the Brisbane event as a warm-up before the national titles in Sydney on April 6 and then set her sights on the Diamond League campaign.
She won silver behind Mitchell at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast last year, which contributed to a whirlwind 12 months.
Barber married coach Mike Barber after the Commonwealth Games and hit a purple patch of form, winning two events in Finland, claiming a title in Germany, finishing second in Italy and third in London.
The competition in Brisbane last year kickstarted her run, throwing a personal best of 64.57 metres in the final hitout before the Commonwealth Games.
The next target is to throw a world championship-qualifying distance of 61.50 metres in the coming months and everything competition and training block is being used for her Tokyo Olympic goal. Barber finished 28th in her Olympic debut in Rio three years ago.
"You don't want to set the bar too high straight after a training block, but internally I do set high standards," Barber said.
"It's a funny time of year, I don't have any competitions to measure where I am. But I'm feeling good and I'm confident. I'd love to win another national title, but I'll have to beat Kathryn to do that and she's in good form.
"A big part of pushing out this general training has been preparation for next year as much as anything. We planned to do a bigger training block to help for next year ... so yes, Tokyo is in the back of my mind."
Barber's training partner Jayden Sawyer has had some success on the para-javelin circuit, winning a competition in Dubai while Jess Bell has been selected for the world university games.
Meanwhile, Canberra junior Colby Eddowes won the under-18 Australian decathlon title last weekend and set a new ACT record for the event to qualify for the Oceania championships in June.
