Indian javelin star Neeraj Chopra is set to make his long-awaited return to competition at the Doha Diamond League on Friday, with organisers confirming his participation in the season’s seventh stop on the prestigious circuit.
The two-time Olympic medallist will be competing for the first time in 2026 after spending the off-season recovering from a back injury sustained during a training camp in Switzerland. Chopra has not competed since the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, making the Doha meet a highly anticipated comeback event.
His return comes days after he was provisionally included in India’s 32-member athletics squad for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, signalling a gradual build-up towards another busy international season.
Doha has been a happy hunting ground for Chopra in recent years. The Indian ace won the event in 2023 with a throw of 88.67m, finished runner-up in 2024 with 88.36m, and produced a national-record throw of 90.23m at the same venue last year, although Germany’s Julian Weber denied him victory on that occasion.
The men’s javelin contest is expected to feature a high-quality field. While Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem has withdrawn after initially being named, Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage will arrive as the current world leader following his stunning 92.62m effort at the Rome Diamond League earlier this month.
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Pathirage’s throw moved him to eighth on the all-time list and made him the second-best Asian performer in history behind Nadeem’s 92.97m Olympic record from Paris 2024.
Also featuring in the event are reigning world champion Keshorn Walcott, former world champions Anderson Peters and Julius Yego, American Curtis Thompson, and Olympic and world silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch.
The Doha Diamond League will serve as an important early-season test for Chopra as he looks to regain rhythm and fitness ahead of a packed international calendar.