It was once again a case of so close yet so far for javelin thrower Manu DP, who has set his eyes as the third Indian entrant at the Paris Olympics. The lanky javelin thrower, back from a stint in South Africa, is just one throw away from joining reigning Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and Asian Games silver medallist Kishore Kumar Jena in Paris.

Manu, however, is still in search of achieving that magic mark of 85.50m, needed to make the cut. The most recent outing at the Federation Cup in Bhubaneswar presented him a golden opportunity to breach that or even come closer to his personal best of 84.35m, but fell short by a substantial margin after managing a disappointing 82.06m. This remained the best mark until Neeraj overhauled it to take the gold.

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“It was disappointing, I could have done much better. It was good to compete against Neeraj bhai but I couldn’t get my technique right and failed to get the perfect elevation,” Manu told The Statesman.

Manu’s performance at the Federation Cup has affected his chances of joining Chopra and Jena on the flight to Paris.

Prior to the Odisha meet, Manu held a comfortable 11th spot in the Road to Paris rankings. The top 12 in the rankings will get to compete in Paris. But post his Federation Cup performance, he has dropped to 12th in the list, which means he faces an uphill battle to ensure Olympic qualification. But Manu is looking to attain the automatic qualification distance.

“I was confident of breaching the qualification mark at the Federation Cup. I still have an event on May 30 and then the inter-state meet. I will try my best to achieve qualification in these competitions,” an optimistic Manu said.

“It would be wrong to say that I’m not nervous but there is no pressure. I will just have to go and give my best on the day of the competition. It takes one throw to get to that magic mark, we are working towards that,” he added.

As of now, the 24-year-old from Karnataka is planning to compete in an event in Taiwan later this month. “The federation has said that we should go and compete in Taiwan later this month and hopefully we will be able to reach the automatic qualification mark,” he said.

Back from a maiden overseas training trip in Potchefstroom, South Africa, Manu said it helped him sort out a number of shortcomings. “The training stint in South Africa helped me a lot. It helped me to increase my power. The weather was nice over there and I really enjoyed my training sessions,” he said.

However, on return from South Africa, his performance at the Indian Grand Prix I in Bengaluru turned out to be something of a disappointment as he could only manage an attempt of 81.91 meters, which was far short of both his personal best and the Paris Olympics cut.

Manu, who trains under Kashinath Naik, has the Paris Olympics firmly in his sights and his backing himself for a podium finish at the quadrennial extravaganza.

“I have gone beyond 86 metres during training. I know that on the big day, if I can emulate my best performance that I achieved during training, I will have a strong chance of winning an Olympic medal,” Manu said.

“Right now, I am totally focussed on qualifying. Once I qualify, I will just concentrate on achieving my personal best at the Olympics,” he added.