Jena, Sable set to participate in Paris Diamond League 2024 to bolster their preparations for Summer Games
Jul 06, 2024
Paris [France], July 6 : India's Paris Olympics-bound athletes Avinash Sable and Kishore Jena will compete in the Paris Diamond League 2024, which will be held at the Charlety Stadium on Sunday.
This will be the second Diamond League event for one of India's javelin throwers, Kishore Jena. He was seen on the track earlier this year in Doha in May.
The Asian Games silver medallist finished ninth in the event after sending his javelin to a distance of 76.31m.
At the Paris Diamond League, Jena is part of a star-studded javelin field that will feature Commonwealth Games champion Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, three-time Diamond League champion Jakub Vadlejch of Czechia and two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada.
Jena secured the fifth spot at the Federation Cup in India with a throw of 75.49m. He landed his season-best of 80.84m and finished third at the Inter State Championships in Panchkula last month.
He had secured a Paris 2024 Olympics quota with his silver medal-winning throw of 87.54m at the Asian Games last year.
Reigning Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, who got the better of Jena in the Asian Games final in Hangzhou to win gold, will not feature in the Paris Diamond League.
Meanwhile, Asian Games champion Avinash Sable will feature in the men's 3000m steeplechase. This will be his first appearance in this year's Diamond League.
Sable began his season with a second-place finish at the Portland Track Festival in Orlando, USA where he clocked 8:21.85s. He won the InterState in Panchkula last month, with a timing of 8:31.75s.
Sable, who set the national record of 8:11.20s to win the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, participated in four Diamond League events last year.
He breached the Paris 2024 Olympics entry standard last year after clocking 8:11.63s at the Chorzow Diamond League in Poland.
The Diamond League is an annual series of top-tier track and field competitions organised by World Athletics. The meeting in Paris is the eighth leg of the Diamond League 2024 series.
Athletes accumulate points based on their performances in each Diamond League leg and the top athletes in each event qualify for the finals.
The winner in each event at the finals secures a Diamond League trophy. This year's finals will be held in Brussels, Belgium in September.
