Glasgow, July 24 (IANS) Two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra is set to arrive in Glasgow late on Friday night ahead of the 2026 Commonwealth Games, sources told IANS, with India’s biggest sporting star preparing to spearhead the country’s athletics campaign.
The athlete who won the 2018 Commonwealth Games is returning to the event after having been unable to take part in the 2022 Birmingham Games because of an injury and will be trying to regain the men’s javelin title, which is currently held by Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, the reigning Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion.
After having a mixed year in 2025, Neeraj heads to Glasgow. Although he had just managed to reach the highly-desired 90 metre mark for the first time in his career, he was disheartened at the World Athletics Championships, where he ended up in eighth position. He then returned to competition at the Doha Diamond League earlier this year, where his best throw of 85.69 metres secured him fourth place, a promising result that indicated he was slowly coming back to his top form.
The rivalry in Glasgow is expected to be one of the strongest of his career, since Nadeem, former world champion Anderson Peters, and Rumesh Pathirage from Sri Lanka—who is currently the most successful javelin thrower in 2026 and the athlete who beat Neeraj in Doha—are all anticipated to contest for the gold medal.
Neeraj is leading India’s team at the Commonwealth Games together with other Olympic medallists Mirabai Chanu and Lovlina Borgohain; athletics is expected to be the area in which India will win the most medals, and Neeraj is once again carrying the country’s hopes.
The programme of the 23rd Commonwealth Games will include 10 sports for able-bodied athletes and six para sports. India will be taking part in eight able-bodied events, namely athletics, boxing, cycling (track), swimming, judo, bowls, weightlifting and artistic gymnastics, as well as sending athletes to compete in five para sports.
–IANS
hs/bsk/