3 min readUpdated: Jul 30, 2026 04:07 PM IST
Neeraj Chopra will be gunning for a medal on Friday after the Indian javelin star qualified for the medal round on Thursday with two attempts. Chopra started the qualification round with a throw of 76.28 in the first attempt which was bettered by the second with a throw of 79.61m. Chopra, however, waived off his third attempt as he had already qualified with a 5th place finish.
The other two Indians Yashvir Singh and Rohit Yadav started their attempts with 73.89m and 77.04m respectively. Yashvir’s second throw was slightly better with 74.45m while Rohit’s second attempt was 78.37m. Yashvir finished with 78.36m in his third and final attempt while Rohit did not throw a third time after qualification was confirmed. All three Indians qualified for the 12-man final set for Friday with Rohit and Yashvir finishing 9th and 10th respectively.
Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan registered his season best with 78.63m, which he could not better while Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage of Sri Lanka finished first with a 82.84 in first attempt. Both athletes qualified for the final as well in the first and 7th position.
A lower back injury has been troubling Chopra since September 2025 and he made a delayed start to the season at Doha Diamond League on June 19. He finished fourth with a throw of 85.69m — a modest one by his high standards.
With another round of rehabilitation and training for a month at his training base in Bienne in Switzerland, the 28-year-old two-time Olympic medallist Indian superstar would be looking to repeat his gold-winning performance at 2018 Gold Coast CWG.
Chopra had won gold in Gold Coast with a throw of 86.47m. He missed the 2022 Games due to an injury.
Indian athletics head coach Radhakrishnan Nair, who is expecting the 32-member team to better last edition’s eight-medal haul, said Chopra is in “perfect physical shape”.
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It will, however, be a tough fight for the gold for Chopra in a star-studded field. The men’s javelin qualifying round will be on July 30 and the final the next day.
Except for the likes of Curtis Thompson of USA and Julian Weber of Germany, all the global javelin top stars will be in action in Glasgow.
Besides Chopra, Nadeem and Pathirage, the other competitors include reigning world champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago and 2022 CWG silver winner Anderson Peters of Grenada.
Pathirage will start as favourite for gold as he is the lone 90m-plus thrower in the world this season with his 92.62m while winning Rome Diamond League title. The 23-year-old has another three 88m-plus throws and won two DL titles this season.
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Nadeem, though, has been struggling for some time, and he is entering the Games with an extremely poor 78.47m effort at Luzern, Switzerland, on July 16. Peters has a season’s best of 86.38m. He won the Rabat DL title in May with 86.08m. The 33-year-old Walcott is yet to hit peak form as his season’s best is 83.45m.
