Kishore Jena Chasing Olympic History

After rounding off 2023 on a scintillating note, javelin thrower Kishore Fena's focus is to secure a podium finish at the Paris Olympics

- Ravi Raj

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 this year, 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 short lived. 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 2020 Olympics. His rise is not steady, but unprecedented.