15 June,2026 08:29 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Neeraj Chopra (File Pic)
India's javelin star, Neeraj Chopra, is officially scheduled to start his 2026 competitive campaign at the Doha Diamond League in Qatar this Friday. His inclusion was confirmed following the release of the event's entry list on Monday, according to Olympics.com.
The participation in Doha marks Chopra's first professional outing of the year, following a focused off-season recovery period. The athlete had been rehabilitating a back injury during a training stint in Switzerland. His most recent appearance on the world stage was at the World Athletics Championships 2025 in Tokyo, held last September.
The announcement of his return to the circuit comes after his provisional selection for India's 32-member athletics squad ahead of the Commonwealth Games 2026.
This marks the fourth consecutive year that Chopra will compete in the Doha leg of the prestigious Diamond League. The double Olympic medalist has a storied history at the venue, having clinched the top spot in 2023 with a massive 88.67m effort, secured second place in 2024 with 88.36m, and established a new Indian national record of 90.23m last year, though he narrowly finished second behind Germany's Julian Weber.
The javelin lineup in Qatar promises to be a high-stakes affair. Although Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem has been removed from the list after an initial entry, the competition remains strong. Headlining the competition is Sri Lanka's Rumesh Pathirage, who stunned the athletics world with a 92.62m throw at the Rome Diamond League 2026 just weeks ago.
Pathirage's recent heroics have moved him to eighth on the all-time world list, establishing him as the second-most successful Asian thrower behind only Nadeem's Paris 2024 Olympic record of 92.97m.
Joining Chopra and Pathirage are a host of legends, including current world champion Keshorn Walcott and former titleholders Anderson Peters and Julius Yego. The roster is completed by Curtis Thompson and the consistently elite Jakub Vadlejch, a multi-time Olympic and world silver medalist.
As the seventh event on the 2026 Diamond League calendar, Doha serves as an important stepping stone toward the season finale, which is set to take place in Brussels on September 4 and 5.
(With ANI inputs)
