Kishore Jena made headlines when he won a silver medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 and since then, has been in the limelight. Born to Keshav Jena and Harapriya as the youngest of seven children in the family, the javelin thrower hails from the village of Kothasahi near Puri, Odisha.
The athlete who fell in love with volleyball at a young age, found his interest in javelin when he met Laxman Baral, a former Odisha state champion. Baral was in the stands witnessing Jena’s remarkable volleyball prowess and was so impressed that he eventually gifted the youngster a hand-made javelin made of bamboo. Along with his volleyball training sessions, Kishore Jena also continued honing his throwing skills under coach Nilamadhab Deo at the Bhubaneswar sports hostel. Nobody knew what was to follow as Jena slowly but gradually made the surge upwards
Kishore Jena earned a direct entry into the Paris Olympics 2024. But why? The cutoff for qualifying is 85.50m. Jena, achieved qualification to the mega event when he registered an 86.77m throw in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. It’ll be better to mention that his current record is 87.54m which is also the second-best mark registered by an Indian.
Jena is just behind Neeraj Chopra, who won gold in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Chopra is currently among the top 25 javelin throwers in the world with an 89.94m personal record, a feat he established in the Stockholm Diamond League in June 2022.
Kishore Jena is all set to take part in his first Olympics
In 2017, Kishore Jena created the state record with a 72.77m throw and it was ultimately javelin, and not volleyball, which landed him a job at the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in Bhopal in 2018. Jagbir Singh, who trained Jena at the CISF noticed his potential and was firm that Jena was meant to achieve something big in his career.
This will be Kishore Jena’s maiden Olympics and he’ll surely want to make it memorable. In his career, the javelin thrower has won a silver in the Asian Games, and in the World Athletics Championship 2023, he ended his campaign at the fifth position.
India will have both Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Jena participating at the Paris Olympics 2024 and the fans back home will be hopeful that the ‘solid’ contingent can bring multiple medals, just like they did at the Asian Games last year.
