Kishore Kumar Jena captured the mens javelin-throw bronze medal for Odisha on the fourth day of the 61st AFI National Open Athletics Championships at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru today. He finished third with a throw of 78.05 meters.

Services athlete Manu DP dominated the javelin event, improving the meet record three times. He opened with 80.32m, improved it to 80.50m before uncorking a final throw over 81.23m.

With his first throw, the 22-year-old broke the meet record set at 79.04m by Ravinder Singh Khaira in Lucknow in 2016. He remained the only athlete to breach the 80m mark today, adding the National Open title to the top prize he won in the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai in June this year.

Manu will be pleased that he breached the 80m mark in a final for the fifth time this year, including in the Commonwealth Games where he finished fifth with 82.28. With a 79.80m throw on his third attempt, Rohit Yadav (Railways) appeared to have warmed up to the idea of posing Manu a challenge, but that was not to be and he settled for the silver medal.

The bronze by Kishore Jena was the second medal for Odisha in the five-day National Open Championships. The first medal for Odisha was a gold, won by Olympian Srabani Nanda in womens 100m sprint earlier on the second day.

Meanwhile, Srabani also qualified for the womens 200m final, which would take place tomorrow. Earlier on the third day, Odisha mens 4x100m relay team, consisting of Abhinas Sahu, Aryan Ekka, Lalu Prasad Bhoi and Amiya Kumar Mallick put up impressive performance but narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth with a timing of 40.85 seconds.

Swadhin Majhi also missed out on a bronze medal in mens high jump as he finished fourth with an effort of 2.05m. Services jumper Chethan Balasubramanya claimed the bronze, also with a performance of 2.05m. The gold and silver in the event were pocketed by Sarvesh Anil Kushare (Services, 2.18m) and Jesse Sandesh (Railways, 2.10m) respectively.
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PHOTO: Odisha javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena poses after winning bronze medal at the National Open Athletics Championships in Bangalore on 18 October 2022.