India’s Kishore Jena will join Neeraj Chopra in the men’s javelin event in the Paris Olympics 2024. Jena, who is India’s second-best athlete in the discipline has revealed that he almost left the sport due to his low returns from events. Jena, while speaking to Jio Cinema said he was at the lowest point of his career around a year back and was planning to quit.
Jena recently won the silver medal in the Asian Games and was only behind Neeraj Chopra, the defending Olympic champion. Jena said that he was on the verge of quitting the sport in 2023 after a string of poor performances but he heeded his father’s advice, leading to a revival of his career.
Jena admitted that Neeraj Chopra’s Tokyo Olympics gold medal motivated him to achieve more in his sport but he found it difficult to get the big throws and thought of quitting the sport in July last year just before the World Championships.
“When Neeraj won at the Olympics, we celebrated and enjoyed his victory. But honestly, the victory also left me dejected because I too was playing the same sport. I felt it was time for me to achieve something in sports,” Jena said.
“I participated in 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. I started doubting if all the hard work was worth it. I called my father, who encouraged me to participate in next competition in Sri Lanka,” he said on the show ‘The Dreamers’ on JioCinema.
Jena won in Lebanon (on July 21) with a throw of 78.96m. In fact, Jena could not breach the 80m mark till the end of 2022. His first 80m-plus throw came in March 2023 during the Indian Grand Prix in Thiruvananthapuram where he came up with 81.05m effort.
“I decided the event in Sri Lanka (July 30) would be my last attempt, after which I would quit and go back to prioritizing 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.”
Jena qualified for the Budapest World Championships in August 2023 through world ranking quota. He could not breach the automatic qualification mark of 85.20m.
“I performed well in the World Championships as well, achieving a personal best of 84.77m,” said Jena 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 Paris. I am quite confident. While I haven’t set any particular targets, I am aiming to improve my personal best.”
Kishore Jena recently finished 8th in men’s javelin throw at the Paris Diamond League on Sunday, 7 July. In the absence of Neeraj Chopra, who had skipped the event to prepare for Olympics 2024, the onus was on Jena to provide the sparks for India. However, the 28-year-old was far from his best, finishing with a best throw of 78.10m.
Jena’s best throw on that day came in his very first attempt. After that, the Indian star was able to complete two more legal throws, which fell way short of his best mark of 87.54m. Jena was not able to cross the 80m meter on the day. He was not the only one from the 10-man field who failed to touch the 80m barrier. Only the top 5 athletes crossed the 80m mark with the winning throw coming from Germany’s Julian Weber at 85.91m.