On 28 July, two days before the qualification period for the 2023 World Athletics Championships was about to end, India's Kishore Jena hurled the javelin to a distance of 84.38m. Jena's bolt from the blue-he had not crossed 80m before this year was a personal best and won him gold at the 101st Sri Lankan Championships. More importantly, it helped him climb from the bottom of the 'Road to Budapest' rankings and secure a place at the athletics mega event for the very first time.
Till the end of 2022, the farthest the 27-year-old had thrown a javelin was 78.05 metres. His staggering progress this season is the latest in India's growing list of success stories in track and field. The country will field its largest contingent, 28 athletes, at the World Athletics Championships, which begin in Budapest on Saturday, 19 August.
A WINNING MENTALITY
Before this, generations of Indian athletes were brought up on the heartbreak and romance of near-misses on the biggest stage: Milkha Singh finishing fourth in the 400m race at the 1960 Rome Olympics, or P.T. Usha missing out on a medal by 1/100th of a second in 400m hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, or Anju Bobby George finishing fifth in long jump at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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