Neeraj Chopra to miss Doha Diamond League despite recovering from back injury

Star Indian javelin player Neeraj Chopra will miss the Doha Diamond League on June 19 as he is still recovering from a back injury in Switzerland.

Chopra, who has won gold and silver medals at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, began his Diamond League campaign in Doha last year, breaking the 90m mark.

The 28-year-old from Haryana is currently in Bienne, Switzerland for a 47-day off-season training camp along with his long-time physio Ishaan Marwa and coach Jai Choudhary ahead of this year’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

The best in the world, including Sri Lanka’s world leader Rumesh Tharanga Pathiragewho threw a national record 92.62m to win the Diamond League meet in Rome on June 4, will line up at the Qatar Sports Club alongside the Paris Olympics gold medalist Arshad Nadeem from Pakistan and reigning world champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago.

In a field brimming with talent, the trio will be joined at the Mazzrat Doha Meeting by a host of stars, including former two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist Anderson Peters of Grenada and world bronze medalist Curtis Thompson of the USA.

A precedent has been set for outstanding performance. Twelve months ago, the stadium erupted in celebration when 2021 Olympic champion Chopra threw over 90m for the first time to set a national record of 90.23m. However, in one of the greatest javelin competitions of all time, Germany’s Julian Weber responded with a world-best and then personal best of 91.06m on his sixth and final throw.

Pathirage, the first Sri Lankan javelin thrower to reach a World Athletics Championships final, finished seventh in 2025 and is an exciting young talent making his debut in Doha.

“Competing against the world’s best athletes is a dream come true for me and I’m incredibly excited to line up in Doha, where we’ve seen many memorable javelin competitions over the years,” said the 23-year-old former cricketer, who made his Diamond League debut in Rabat in May.

“I’m in a good place now both physically and mentally and I have big goals ahead of me. The conditions in Doha are great for javelin throwers and if everything goes well we can expect some more incredible performances.”

Former world champion and Olympic silver medalist Kenya Julius Yego and Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch, former Olympic and world silver medalist, round out the field.

The Mazzraty Doha Meeting is the seventh meeting of the Wanda Diamond League 2026. The series includes 15 of the most prestigious events in global athletics on four different continents and started in Shanghai/Keqiao on 16 May. It ends with a single final over two days in Brussels on September 4-5.

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Issued by:

Amar Panicker

Published on:

12 Jun 2026 20:03 IST