CHENNAI: After quite a bit of suspense, double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra has decided to take part in the Doha Diamond League to be held on June 19. As mentioned by this newspaper earlier, Doha would be his first pit stop ahead of two mega events — Commonwealth and Asian Games.
Neeraj has been training in Switzerland for a while and seems to be fit to compete. He usually prefers to begin his season in Doha but this year, the Diamond League was postponed from May to June because of the US-Israel war on Iran, which affected the West Asian countries. This also gave Neeraj enough time to get back to his best of fitness. He was provisionally named in the Commonwealth Games team but he has to achieve the qualification mark of 82.61m.
Neeraj has been nursing an injury since the World Championships in Tokyo last year where he finished eighth with a throw of 84.03m. Since the Paris Olympics, where he finished second behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, Neeraj has not been in the peak of form because of an adductor issue which he spoke about after the Paris silver medal.
At the Tokyo worlds and later he has been complaining about a back injury. "The wait is over. First throw of 2026 lands in Doha! Neeraj Chopra returns to competitive action on June 19," his management firm Vel Sports announced on Instagram. Neeraj is yet to compete after the showpiece event in Tokyo on September 18.
Though Neeraj's name was missing initially, the Doha DL website now brought his name on the start list. Earlier, they had announced that new Sri Lankan sensation Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage — who threw this year's world leading distance and his personal best of 92.62m at Rome Diamond League — would take part. Nadeem's name is missing. World champion Keshorn Walcott too will feature at the event and has a season's best of 83.45m. Meanwhile, Anderson Peters has a season best throw of 86.08m.