Kishore Jena, DP Manu: Contrasting Tales Of Two States

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It was a historic feat for Indian athletics, or javelin in particular, at the World Athletics Championships 2023 last week when Neeraj Chopra was crowned the nation's first World Champion in track and field after a wait of three decades since the inception of the game.

Two unheralded names, Kishore Jena and DP Manu, left their mark on the biggest stage as well with unprecedented top-six finishes by three javelin throwers from the country.

However, such was the enormity of Neeraj Chopra's success that the performances of DP Manu and Kishore Jena were a mere footnote in the outcome and was only perceived as a promising result for a bright future of Indian javelin.

There was more to this than meets the eye as far as the results of Manu and Jena are concerned. Especially for the latter, who wasn't even an 80m thrower until he breached the mark earlier this year in March at a domestic event.

Interestingly, by the time the 27-year-old athlete threw his personal best of 84.77 metres in Budapest - a brilliant throw especially when Indian athletes often struggle to churn out their best at big events - Kishore Jena, who hails from a farmer's family in Odisha's Kothasahi, was sitting on an improvement of more than six metres in less than 11 months' time.

23-year-old DP Manu, at the same time, has always been considered a much brighter prospect than his compatriot since he threw his personal best of 84.35m at the Inter-State championships last year. The Karnataka track and field athlete also bagged his first major medal in Asian Athletics Championships silver in Bangkok a few months ago but has struggled to take his performance to the next level.

On paper, it looks like Jena is reaching for the zenith in his career while DP Manu is just not able to get out of the mental barrier of 85m. However, if the coach of the young javelin thrower from Karnataka is to be believed, it's the lack of support from the state government that has let Manu down.

"After Manu won the Asian championship medal, he didn't receive any congratulations from the (Karnataka) government. Manu's silver medal went unnoticed without any recognition," coach Kashinath Naik tells myKhel.

Expectedly, there was no welcome in order post the World Championships performance as well but his compatriot Kishore Jena, on the other hand, was not just recognised by his home state Odisha but was also granted a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh by the local government.

The grant wasn't the only aid the former volleyball player received from the government as Jena also had the luxury of training at the state-of-art facility of the Kalinga Stadium, which houses a high-performance centre for athletics and other Olympic disciplines. Jena further has the financial assistance of Reliance Foundation, which works in close proximity with the Odisha Sports at the Kalinga facilities.

"We have little to complain about as far as the Odisha government is concerned," says Jena's coach Samarjeet Singh Malhi. "He gets to stay at the hostel facilities of the Odisha Sports with world-class training facilities at his disposal."

For DP Manu, on the other hand, the struggle is real as his coach Kashinath, who is also credited with being the coach of Neeraj Chopra in his formative years, is expecting the least of support from the Karnataka government for DP Manu, who trains at Army Sports Institute in Pune.

"He has been training at the Army institute for the last five years and that's all the support he has at the moment because the Karnataka government probably won't come to his support until he does something at the Olympics but to make an Olympic medallist you need to carefully hone them," says Kashinath, who is 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.

Similar to Jena, DP Manu's parents are farmers in Hassan, 180-odd kilometres from the capital Bengaluru. Lack of financial backing for the young man, who works as a Havaldar in the Indian Army, means he often has to plan his budget keeping in mind his family's requirements first on the priority list.

"We are less than a year away from the Olympics, which means we don't have much time to waste and all resources possible, including his dietary requirements, are needed for him to qualify and be ready for Paris," says Kasinath. "But the poor boy has to send money home first as his father could barely make ends meet as a wheat and poppy seeds farmer."

Manu DP is not the last of Karnataka athletes, who have complained of lack of financial support as the nation's decorated quarter-miler MR Poovamma, three-time Asian Games gold medallist, tennis Grand Slam winner Rohan Bopanna and Kasinath himself have highlighted in the past that Karnataka government did little for them after success at the international stages.

Kasinath, however, is hopeful that things may 'change for good' following the Assembly election in May, which saw the Indian National Congress return to power. However, with less than 10 months to go for the Olympics and a qualification standard of 85.50m yet to be cleared, time is ticking away for the youngster, who could be on his own again preparing for Paris on a shoe-string budget while his compatriot Kishore Jena has all the backing he needs just because they were born in two different states.