Jena chases return to Hangzhou high

If there's one thing Kishore Jena doesn't want to talk about, it's the injury that stymied his ascent following the high of 2023.

- Shantanu Srivastava

NEW DELHI: Inquests about his left ankle are met with sheepish smiles and clichéd responses that reveal little, but Jena makes it clear that he wants to move on. His performances in the recent past do not inspire much confidence, at least among distant observers, but the 29-year-old is looking at incremental gains.

"I am taking it slow. It's like starting all over again," he said from Mumbai, where he trains at the Reliance High Performance Centre. After a sub-par 2024 that saw him touch the 80m mark only twice, Jena opened the season with a second-place finish at the India Open in April, where his best throw was recorded at 75.99m. A week later, an effort of 77.82m placed him fourth at the National Federation Senior Athletics Championships in Kochi—results that he claims are "major stepping stones" toward reclaiming his peak.