Kishore Jena was born in Kothasahi village in Odisha, on 6 September in 1995 with his permanent residence being Brahmagiri Block in Puri. Kishore Jena competes in the javelin throw for India in track and field events.
Kishore Jena, a cadet of the Bhubaneshwar Sports Hostel and Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre, previously played volleyball before his coach encouraged him to play Javelin.
The 27-year-old made his name when in June 2023, he won silver at the national championships in Bhubaneshwar.
On July 30, Kishore Jena clinched gold in the Sri Lankan National Championships with a personal best of 84.38m, helping him make the cut through the world ranking quota for the World Athletics Championship.
In fact, he qualified for the event after being placed 36th in the Road to Budapest list updated by World Athletics (WA) following the completion of the qualification period on July 30.
Then came the trouble of actually going to Budapest for the World Athletics Championship, after Jena’s visa application was cancelled by the Hungarian embassy in India.
Olympic gold-medallist javelin-thrower Neeraj Chopra and his fellow contestant came out in support and took to social media to request the Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar to ‘find a solution’.
The solution came and Kishore Jena went on to make his debut and help make history - as the first athlete from Odisha to qualify for the final of the World Athletics Championships.
Kishore, competing in Group B, made the cut for the 12-man final with an 80.55m throw, finishing ninth in the standings. He took off with an energetic 80.55m throw in his first attempt but went down to a 78.07m in the second attempt and finished with his lowest of the day with, 77.12m. A competitor gets three attempts in the qualifying round.
“I was nervous at first for such a big game. Now I have confidence and I will play very well," said Jena told News18 Odia.
“It’s a remarkable feeling that three athletes from India will be competing in the finals of one event. This would have been impossible even a few years back," Jena was quoted as saying by TOI.
Kishore’s mother added that she has faith in Lord Jagannath and with god’s blessings, her son will make the nation proud.
“God will give him success and he will bring glory to the country," she told News18 Odia.
In fact, Kishore Jena will be joining Neeraj Chopra and DP Manu in the final.
“For the first time three Indians have qualified for the final round of an event in World Championships. It has never happened earlier. It’s a historic day for Indian javelin," a team coach in the Indian contingent told PTI.
India first participated in the World Championships in 1983.
(With inputs from Agencies)