Olympic-bound javelin thrower Kishore Jena says facilities and funding have never been as good as they are right now for India’s athletes, who need to improve their mindset and start considering themselves as good as anyone else in the world.

Jena undertook a 35-day training stint in Gold Coast in Australia from February 5 to March 10, funded by Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS). He said he hardly found anything different save for the warmer weather Down Under, which was more conducive for his training.

“We have everything here, I trained at the NIS Patiala where the facilities are world class and as good as in Australia. I have been looked after very well by Sports Ministry, SAI (Sports Authority of India), getting funding from TOPS,” Jena, youngest of the seven children of a paddy farmer in Kothasahi village near Puri in Odisha, said in the interview facilitated by SAI.

“What is lacking is in ourselves (athletes), our mindset. We lack the mindset that we are as good as any other in the world though we are improving on this front as well.”

His goal is to deliver his personal best at the Paris Olympics, but the Asian Games silver medallist feels he can enter the exclusive Indian club of Diamond League top-three finishers.

Jena, who improved his personal best from 78.05m to 87.54m last year, is beginning his season at the Doha leg of the prestigious Diamond League on May 10.

He will also take part in the Golden Spike at Ostrava, Czech Republic, on May 28 — a World Athletics Continental Tour gold level event — and the Paris leg of the Diamond League on July 7.

“This year, everything is about doing my personal best in the Olympics. But everybody wants to finish on the podium (top three) in prestigious competitions like the Diamond League and I also hope to do that,” Jena said.

“If I do my best on the day, it (top three finish in Diamond League) can happen,” said the 28-year-old who made the Paris Olympics cut by breaching the 85.50m qualifying standard at the Asian Games last year.

Till now, reigning Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra, long jumper M Sreeshankar and former discus throw star Vikas Gowda are the only three Indians who have finished inside the top three in a Diamond League meet.

Jena threw his personal best of 87.44m to win the silver medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, while Chopra took the gold with a throw of 88.88m.

His meteoric rise last year — from finishing fifth in the Budapest World Championships to winning silver medal at the Asian Games — was achieved while training in India. “It’s cold in Patiala in winter and difficult to manage training because of fog also. So, we requested SAI for a training stint in Australia. We went to Australia solely because of the cold winter in Patiala, nothing else.

“It was a productive stint of strength training and improvement on technique (in Australia). We worked on the bending of the blocking leg. It will gradually improve and I am hoping for 85 per cent improvement on that,” he said.

Asked if he will return to India after competitions abroad, Jena said, “I may be taking part in back-to-back events (beginning in Doha on May 10) and may need to be abroad most of the time till the Paris Olympics, but we are yet to finalise.

“But from the Paris Diamond League (July 7) onwards, I would prefer to have my base there till the end of the Olympics.”

The men’s javelin throw event at the Paris Olympics will start with the qualifying round on August 6 and final will be held on August 8.