History rarely runs along a linear path. It stays in a state of stasis for decades and then comes a watershed moment where it suddenly springs back to motion—riding along all the crests and troughs—making up for the decades of dormancy in just days. In the context of a rather brief history of Indian javelin, the triumph of Neeraj Chopra at the Tokyo Olympics was this watershed moment— a grand awakening for all the practitioners of this sport in the country. In Japan, Chopra was the lone representative of the world’s most populous country. When the sporting carnival returns this year in the city of Paris, Chopra will be joined by his compatriot Kishore Jena, a late bloomer from a small, nondescript town of Odisha, who shocked everyone by standing toe-to-toe with the Olympics medallist at the Asian Games last year.
If the expectations are high from Jena, there are legitimate reasons for that. He finished fifth at the World Athletics Championship in Budapest, and almost did the unthinkable by outscoring Chopra in Hangzhou, albeit that joy was shortlived. He breached the 80m mark for the first time at the beginning of the year, and by the end of it, he achieved his personal best of 87.54m—a distance that would have easily earned him a silver medal in the Olympics 2020. His rise is not steady, but unprecedented.
His entire routine now revolves around excelling in a sport that he took only a few years ago, and even contemplated quitting at one point. When Jena failed to live up to his expectations in Lebanon in 2022, where he could only manage a below-par throw of 78.96m, the whole pursuit began to feel like a drag. Settling in closer to home where his ailing parents resided seemed more alluring. “I got a bit depressed thinking about my ordinary performance in Lebanon. I cried the whole night and called my father at 3 am. It has been years since my last visit to my home, and I was missing it sorely,” says Jena.
The words of encouragement that he received from his father convinced him to hang in there and give this sport one last chance. “My father asked me to give it a final shot, and if I don’t succeed I can just come back home,” he adds. Jena decided to hang in there, pinning all his hopes on the result of the next tournament, a national championship in Sri Lanka. He threw the farthest, achieving his personal best of 84.38m. “It was a major turning point in my career. If I hadn’t won it here, then nothing good that came to me last year would have happened,” avers the 28-year-old.
It took him years of toil to find the perfect groove, but now that he has found it, the quest for improvement has only grown more resolute. He is leaving nothing to chance. His consistency at the elite level also made things a lot easier, for now he has sponsorships from Reliance Foundation, and he is training under the watchful eyes of experts. All he has to focus on is his game, as everything else from his dietary requirements to his recovery process is being monitored by experts. “My game was never up to the level I desired. To juggle between my game and the family has not always been easy. I didn’t have great support in the beginning, but once I had support from sponsors, all the tension I had been carrying for years vanished,” says Jena.
Coming from a family of modest means, Jena understood very well that the javelin was not merely an equipment to hurl but also an instrument to pull his family off the financial precarity. Once he landed a job in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) via sports quota, the pangs of self-doubt and indecisiveness stopped afflicting him, for he now had something to fall back upon if the javelin career didn’t pan out well. “I was able to concentrate fully on the practice after I got the job in 2018. All kinds of doubts stopped running in my mind,” tells Jena, who is currently training at a national camp in Patiala. Three years later he received his maiden call-up at the national camp, and since then, it has been all about attaining marginal gains that culminated in momentous exhibitions in Budapest and Hangzhou.
Although life has become a lot easier now, the thought of staying miles away from home for years still gets overwhelming. “It’s okay for some time, but to stay away from your family for so long only gets harder with each passing day. I’ve shed tears on countless nights, but when the dawn comes, I have to be at the training ground and break sweat,” he says. As training gets difficult in the harsh winter of Patiala, Jena shifts his base to his home state Odisha for the next few months.
Six months from now awaits the biggest test of Jena’s life, in Paris. The preparation is in full swing. Every day is an opportunity to hone his rough edges, and amend the mistakes he made in the past, says Jena, adding that all he wants is to “give his best at the Olympics”. I’m working on my technique, and will play a couple of diamond leagues to see where I stand,” he says. Even amid his busy schedule, he finds time to play volleyball, a sport that’s as close to him as javelin. If everything goes well, one shouldn’t be surprised to see two Indian athletes on the podium for the javelin event in Paris.
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