Neeraj's plea answered: Jena's path to World Championships cleared

Indian javelin thrower Kishore Jena on Friday received his visa to travel to Hungary, paving the way for him to compete at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest from August 19-27.

Confirming the development, an Athletics Federation of India (AFI) source said that his visa has been cleared after his interview/appointment on Friday morning and he will get his travel documents later in the day.

On Wednesday, Jena's visa application was cancelled by the Hungarian embassy in India.

It led to Olympic gold-medallist javelin-thrower Neeraj Chopra coming out in support of him and requesting Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar to "find a solution".

"Just heard that there are issues with Kishore Jena's VISA, preventing him from entering Hungary for the World C'ships. I hope the authorities are able to find a solution, as this is one of the biggest moments of his career. Let's do everything we can," he posted on X (formerly Twitter), tagging MEA and Jaishankar.

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

Jena 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 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 elbow surgery on his throwing arm.

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.