We have everything in India, says javelin champ Jena

Kishore Jena

Olympic-bound javelin thrower Kishore Jena says facilities and funding have never been as good as they are right now for India's athletes, who need to improve their mindset and start considering themselves as good as anyone else in the world.

Jena undertook a 35-day training stint in Gold Coast in Australia from February 5 to March 10, funded by Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS). Speaking to PTI, Jena said he hardly found anything different than for the warmer weather Down Under, which was more conducive for his training.

"We have everything here, I trained at NIS Patiala where the facilities are world class and as good as in Australia. I have been looked after very well by Sports Ministry, SAI [Sports Authority of India], getting funding from TOPS," Jena, youngest of the seven children of a paddy farmer in Kothasahi village near Puri in Odisha, said in the interview facilitated by SAI.

"What is lacking is in ourselves [athletes], our mindset, the mindset that we are as good as any other in the world though we are improving on this front as well."

His goal is to deliver his personal best at the upcoming Paris Olympics but the Asian Games silver-medallist feels he can enter the exclusive Indian club of Diamond League top-three finishers.

Jena, who improved his personal best from 78.05m to 87.54m last year, is beginning his season at the Doha leg of the prestigious Diamond League on May 10.
He will also take part in Golden Spike at Ostrava, Czech Republic, on May 28 -- a World Athletics Continental Tour gold level event -- and the Paris leg of the Diamond League on July 7. "This year, everything is about doing my personal best in Paris Olympics. That is the most important thing. But everybody wants to finish on podium [top three] in prestigious competitions like Diamond League and I also hope to do that," Jena said.

"If I do my best on the day, it [top three finish in DL] can happen," said the 28-year-old who made the Paris Olympics cut by breaching the 85.50m qualifying standard at the Asian Games last year.

Till now, reigning Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra, long jumper M Sreeshankar and former discus throw star Vikas Gowda are the only three Indians who have finished inside top three in a Diamond League meet.

Jena threw his personal best of 87.44m to win the silver medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, while Chopra took the gold with a throw of 88.88m.

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