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At the beginning of the year, the soft-spoken Kishore Jena would have reacted in disbelief if he had been told he would be a World Championships finalist, leave alone win an Asian Games medal and qualify for the Paris Olympics.
But 12 months is a lifetime in international sport and Jena understands it all too well. From an unfancied competitor at the start of the year to becoming India’s No.2 javelin thrower, behind world and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, the Odisha thrower has enjoyed a meteoric rise in currently the most popular athletics discipline in the country.
“It does feel like a dream. Earlier, people barely took note of me, but now there are requests for photographs and autographs. It all feels a little surreal. Credit to my coach and well wishers,” the 28-year-old says.
“Honestly, if you would have told me at the start of the year that I will have such results in the coming months, I wouldn’t have believed. Having said that, in javelin an improvement of 3-4 metres is not unnatural. So, once I started doing well, I knew I could get in the 85-87m range.”
Having started the year with a best throw of 78.93m that helped him win the season-opening Indian Open Throws Competition, it turned into a largely subdued season for Jena as he managed to breach the 80m mark just once in his next four competitions.
“The turnaround happened in Sri Lanka in July where I threw 84.38m. I was under tremendous pressure going into that event as it was a make-or-break situation. Had I not done well there, I wouldn’t have made the cut for the Budapest Worlds and ultimately the Asian Games medal and Olympics qualification wouldn’t have happened. So for me, the Sri Lankan championships remains the most important performance of the year.”
While 2023 in Indian athletics will be remembered for Chopra’s historic world title and the men’s relay team finishing fifth at the World Championships in Budapest, Jena’s ascent does deserve mentioning. He entered the year with a personal best of 78.05m. In the 12 competitions he participated in 2023, he dipped under that mark only twice, bettering his best seven times in eight months. By the time the season ended, Jena had improved that start-of-the-year PB by 9.49m.
“People say it is a miracle, but in sports there are no miracles. This is the result of Jena’s unwavering dedication and commitment to get better,” his coach Samarjeet Singh Malhi says from Patiala. So much so that barring travel days, Jena missed training only for four days. “That was only because of the visa trouble ahead of the World Championships, otherwise he never missed a session. He didn’t go home, stuck to the diet and fitness routines and trained with single-minded zeal.”
Malhi took Jena under his wing towards the end of 2021 when the volleyball player-turned-javelin thrower had a PB of 76.41m. A jump of 11.13m in two years is the result of a meticulous process put in place that involved a gradual overhaul of Jena’s technique. He also stands at 1.73m, much shorter than Chopra (1.82m) and DP Manu (1.87m-PB 84.35m).
“From his run-up to block to angle of release, we changed everything over time. Credit goes to Jena for trusting the process. He submitted himself to me and the sport rewarded him,” the coach says. “I could sense he is a 85m-plus thrower because his foundation was always strong. At the start of the year, we earmarked Budapest and Hangzhou as our main targets and went about things in a clinical manner. Thankfully, everything came together.”
The test, Malhi says, will be to maintain the momentum. Jena’s success was built on peaking at the right time and Malhi believes the challenge will be to repeat it in 2024. “Of course, Olympics will be our primary goal next year. We now know that Jena can throw in the 87-88m range. In fact, I expected him to throw 88m in Hangzhou. If he manages to consistently throw in that range, he will be a genuine medal candidate in every big meet.”
India’s athletics season is likely to begin next month but the field events will start only in March. Jena is using the three months off-season to work on strength, endurance and technique. This involves using the 900gm javelin as opposed to the 800gm spear used in senior men’s competitions.
“Heavier javelin will improve his arm speed. We also want to improve his pace on the runway, so even a small improvement in speed (with a heavier javelin) will translate into a significant jump once he runs with the 800gm javelin. We are also working on his block to ensure his front knee doesn’t collapse while throwing,” the coach says.
For Jena, the trick lies in repeating what worked for him. “I don’t think we need to do something drastically different. I will just stick to the process and do my best. Who knows, on a good day, something special may happen.”
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