Jena doubtful for World Championships after Hungarian embassy cancels his visa

NEW DELHI: Indian javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena's participation in the World Championships in Budapest was on Wednesday rendered doubtful after his one-month visa was cancelled by the Hungarian embassy here.

Jena, who won gold in the Sri Lankan National Championships on July 30 with a personal best of 84.38m, had made the cut for the prestigious tournament through the world ranking quota.

''Setback for #javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena as Embassy of #Hungary in Delhi has cancelled his one month #visa for reasons unknown. He is doubtful for world championships,'' Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said in a post on social media platform X, formerly twitter, on Wednesday.

''Odisha javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena was issued 1 month Schengen visa last month. He was to leave for Budapest on August 20. If visa cancelled, he can't compete.'' An AFI source, however, said that the federation has requested the Hungarian embassy to look into the matter so that he can travel to Budapest.

Jena had qualified for the event after being placed 36th in the Road to Budapest list updated by World Athletics (WA) following the completion of the qualification period on July 30.

The 27-year-old from Odisha is one of the four Indian javelin throwers to have qualified for the World Championships. DP Manu and Rohit Yadav had also made the cut but the latter pulled out after undergoing an elbow surgery on his throwing arm.

Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra had qualified as wild card by virtue of being reigning Diamond League champion.

Jena, who had won silver in the National Inter-State in June, and Manu are the only Indian athletes yet to reach Budapest out of the 28-member squad.

The showpiece event will get underway on August 19 but men's javelin throw begins on August 25 with the qualifying round, while the final will be held on August 27.