"3-4 quality competitions before Olympics will be good preparation" - Javelin star Kishore Kumar Jena on his plans to compete in Europe

India’s rising javelin star Kishore Kumar Jena has chalked out his plans for next year after a successful 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou. The Odisha javelin thrower had finished fifth at the 2023 Budapest World Athletics Championships held in August in Hungary, while he won silver behind Neeraj Chopra at the Asian Games with a personal best of 87.54m.

One of his plans to prepare for the Paris Olympic Games is to train and compete on the European circuit. He has, however, not disclosed whether he will change his coach in the future or not.

“Three to four quality competitions prior to the Olympic Games will be a good preparation to further improve my performance,” the 28-year-old Asian Games medalist told Sportskeeda of his future plans.

According to Jena, competing at the 2023 World Athletics Championships gave a big boost to his confidence.

“I was a bit nervous at the start of my first major international competition. But eventually finished fifth with a throw of 84.77mm,” he said.

Jena said his goal at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou was to achieve the Paris Olympic Games qualification mark of 85.50m and he didn’t think of a podium because he missed the Olympic Games qualification mark during the Worlds in Hungary.

“There was no pressure of winning a medal at the Asian Games. My target was to improve my personal best of 84.77m,” the Asian Games silver medalist said. “Since there was no pressure, I had nothing to lose and went all out.”

On his personal best throw, he added:

"It was a big achievement for me."

The Odisha javelin thrower doesn’t want to be dragged into a debate that he could have done better than Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra during the Asian Games.

“My goal during competition is to improve my performance and not to think of other competitors in the field,” Jena said.

But it is now evident that Chopra has a competitor on the home soil in the future.

Kishore Kumar Jena overcame off-the-field obstacles to rise to glory

Jena has been facing off-the-field challenges for the past two years. Initially he took out a loan to support his family and for his diet.

“When I started competing at the national level, I realized that I’ve to be on a good diet. Since there were no sponsors, I had no option but to borrow money from the bank to support himself as it was expensive to prepare for national competitions and compete with the best in the business,” Jena said.

According to Jena, since the Odisha government has announced a cash incentive, he will be able to clear the debt. Jena also faced hardship to procure necessary travel documents to Hungary for the World Athletics Championships.

“My training got hampered due to visa issue. But it made me mentally strong and I wanted to prove myself during the Budapest World Athletics Championships,” he added.