Javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena made a meteoric rise this year which he capped with an Asian Games silver medal but he wants to remain grounded, just looking ahead to produce yet another personal best in next year's Paris Olympics. (More Sports News)
A late bloomer, the 28-year-old Jena improved his performance by nearly 10 metres in one year. After recording 78.05m to finish third in the National Open Championships in October last year, he produced his personal best of 87.54m to win a silver in the Hangzhou Asian Games.
"I don't want to set any target of the distance which I will throw in the season ahead. I just want to throw my personal best in Paris," he said.
Jena was speaking on the sidelines of the release of the book 'The man who made history: The Neeraj Chopra story' written by senior journalist Norris Pritam.
Chopra took the gold in Hangzhou with a throw of 88.88m.
"He (Chopra) is my idol, whatever the good things happening in Indian athletics is because of him," said Jena.
Chopra recently talked about Jena's good rhythm on the runway but advised the Odisha athlete to work on improving his blocking technique.
"Yes, I will do that. We are in off-season training, so not doing anything on throwing and on technique. But me and my coach will work on my technique so that everything is OK before the Paris Olympics," said Jena. "All my focus is on the Paris Olympics."
If Jena maintains his performance or improves upon it, he can be a medal contender in the Paris Olympics.
He said the plan as of now is to train mostly in India next year and take part in some top competitions abroad before the Olympics. "In all likelihood I will train in India mostly and go for a few competitions abroad before the Paris Olympics," he said.
Jena's coach Simarjeet Singh Malhi also said that they would prefer to train mostly in India, and take part in a few competitions abroad. Hangzhou Asian Games women's javelin throw gold medallist Annu Rani said the hard work of athletes comes to the fore after winning medals.
"I even began throwing with sugarcane at my village (Bahadurpur near Meerut). People of my village would say why a girl would play sport. I would bring javelin from my school and hide it from my father at home as he was not happy with me doing sport," Annu said.
"But one day, one person from the village told my father that I am doing javelin throw. I had to bear the brunt of my father," said the 31-year-old Annu, who also won a bronze in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
