Asian Games silver medallist Kishore Jena said he was on the verge of quitting athletics last year after a string of poor performances, but a timely intervention from his father helped him revive his career.
The Indian admitted that compatriot Neeraj Chopra’s Tokyo Olympics gold medal in 2021 motivated him to achieve more in javelin, but he found it difficult to get the big throws in and thought of quitting the sport in July last year just before the World Championships.
“I participated in the Lebanon National Championships after a dip in my rankings and produced a throw of 78m. Despite giving it my all, I couldn’t achieve much,” he recently said on the show The Dreamers on JioCinema.
“I started doubting if all the hard work was worth it. I called my father, who encouraged me to participate in the next competition in Sri Lanka.”
Jena won in Lebanon with a throw of 78.96m, which by any standard was a modest performance.
His first 80m-plus throw didn’t come until March 2023, during the Indian Grand Prix in Thiruvananthapuram where he produced an 81.05m effort.
“I decided the event in Sri Lanka would be my last attempt, after which I would quit and go back to prioritising work and family. With God’s grace, I performed well, producing a throw of 84.38m which led to my qualification for the World Championships,” he said.
Jena qualified for the Budapest World Championships in August 2023 through world ranking quota. He could not breach the automatic qualification mark of 85.2m.
“I performed well in the World Championships, achieving a personal best of 84.77m,” said the Odisha native who finished fifth in the final while Chopra won the gold with 88.17m.
“I followed it up with another personal best of 87.54m at the Asian Games (in Hangzhou, China, where he won a silver behind Chopra) securing my ticket to Paris 2024.
“I now want to give my best at the Paris Olympics. I am quite confident. While I haven’t set any particular targets, I am aiming to improve on my personal best.”
Jena has crossed the 80m mark just once in the six events he has participated in after the World Championships last year. He threw 80.84m to win a bronze medal at the National Inter-State Championships in Panchkula in June and that has been his season’s best.
He will have to markedly improve before this month’s Olympics, as the likes of Germany’s Max Dehning (90.20m), Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch (88.65m) and Chopra (88.36m) have done much better.
