The Commonwealth Games final resembles an Olympic podium relocated to Glasgow. Four Olympic medallists. One, Rumesh Pathirage, who looks a lock to join that club at the next Olympics. Among this star-studded field stands Neeraj Chopra and his two compatriots.
The 12-man men’s javelin final gets underway at 12:45 am IST (August 1), 8:15pm local. Sony Sports will provide TV broadcast, with livestreaming on SonyLiv.
Neeraj couldn’t have asked for a better field to prove he is still the man to beat. And he couldn’t have asked for a better venue to prove he remains one of the masters of tackling foul conditions.
After the lows of an injury-marred eighth-place finish at last year’s World Championships, and after parting ways with the legendary Jan Zelezny, Neeraj chose a reset. He brought back his first coach, Jai Chaudhary, the man who put a javelin in his hand at Panipat’s Shivaji Stadium years before the medals started arriving, into a coaching set-up he now runs entirely on his own terms. He began the season in Doha after a lengthy injury layoff with a commendable fourth-place finish.
DOUBTING NEERAJ?
Yes, the numbers are there and making headlines, as they always do with Neeraj. For once, they aren’t the records he breaks at will. These are numbers that have planted seeds of doubt: whether he is past his prime. At the World Championships last year, Neeraj finished outside the podium in a competitive event for the first time in 2,566 days. In Glasgow on Thursday, he managed a best throw of just 79.61m, the first time he hasn’t cleared 80m in a competition in eight years, ending a streak stretching back 58 competitions.
But at this juncture of his career, with Neeraj working out what still works for a body that is no longer 25, the two-time Olympic medallist knows exactly what he is doing. At no point can anyone tell he is doubting himself, and that is the quiet greatness of one of India’s greatest athletes.
Having trained extensively with his new, old team, Neeraj timed his return well in Doha. His presence at these Commonwealth Games is itself a small surprise, given how many expected him to plan his season carefully around the Asian Games and the newly minted Ultimate World Athletics Championships later this year. But knowing Neeraj, he was never going to resist a world-class field with the added pull of a medal for the country.
Back to that field, and Neeraj’s chances in it.
GLASGOW CONDITIONS MIGHT FAVOUR NEERAJ
Neeraj has not thrown beyond 85.69m this year. But the conditions in Glasgow could favour him even without his biggest throws.
Neeraj didn’t dress it up after qualifying. “It was tough to even warm up. My turn came last in the warm-up throws. So, I had to wait a lot and I tried to keep myself warm. It was tough. It was windy and cold,” he said of the conditions at Scotstoun Stadium.
“Yeh thanda Doha tha (this was like a cold Doha). In Doha, it is quite windy, but it’s hot, so you can manage. So, it was very challenging,” he added.
“Thundery showers and a light breeze,” reads the BBC’s weather forecast for Glasgow on July 31. There is good news, though: sunshine is predicted for the time of the final, 8:15pm local.
Neeraj made small adjustments in response. He competed wearing a skull cap to manage his body temperature, and jogged short bursts between throws to keep the machine warm. There remains a chance of a slight drizzle during tonight’s final, raising the risk of injury on a slick runway.
THE STACKED FIELD: RUMESH THE MAIN THREAT
The conditions, then, are challenging enough. The field might be more daunting still.
There is Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage, the gold medal favourite from Sri Lanka. The 23-year-old, who competed at the Neeraj Chopra Classic a couple of years ago, has lived up to every expectation set for him this year and then some. He is the world leader with a colossal 92.62m in the Rome Diamond League in June, the second-best throw by an Asian in history, and has three other throws in excess of 88m this season.
Then there is Anderson Peters, the former world champion, who laid down his own marker on Thursday with a qualifying throw of 81.29m.
And then there is the Olympic champion. Arshad Nadeem, like Neeraj, took a lengthy break after a shocking tenth-place finish at last year’s Worlds. But he showed signs of a return to form with a season’s-best 78.63m in qualifying. The unpredictability of the Olympic record holder makes him dangerous. Don’t be surprised if he hurls a big one, the way he did in Paris two years ago.
There are a couple of surprise faces too, in England’s Ben East, whose 80.38m in qualifying was among his best marks, and Australia’s Cameron McEntyre, who carries a personal best of 85.73m into the final.
And don’t forget India’s Rohit Yadav. The young man, on the back of a career-best 87.05m at the National Inter-State Championships last month, arrives in career-best form. It will be worth watching how he holds up alongside Yash Vir Singh, the 24-year-old chasing his own breakthrough on the biggest stage he’s faced.
JAVELIN FINAL AT CWG 2026: A LOOK AT THE FIELD
- Order 1: Yash Vir Singh (India) — PB: 83.72m | SB: 83.72m
- Order 2: Ben East (England) — PB: 80.38m | SB: 80.38m
- Order 3: Cameron McEntyre (Australia) — PB: 85.73m | SB: 85.73m
- Order 4: Neeraj Chopra (India) — PB: 90.23m | SB: 85.69m
- Order 5: Arshad Nadeem (Pakistan) — PB: 92.97m | SB: 78.63m
- Order 6: Chinecherem Nnamdi (Nigeria) — PB: 84.68m | SB: 84.68m
- Order 7: Anderson Peters (Grenada) — PB: 93.07m | SB: 86.38m
- Order 8: Keyshawn Strachan (Bahamas) — PB: 84.27m | SB: 81.86m
- Order 9: Rohit Yadav (India) — PB: 87.05m | SB: 87.05m
- Order 10: Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (Sri Lanka) — PB: 92.62m | SB: 92.62m
- Order 11: Keshorn Walcott (Trinidad and Tobago) — PB: 90.16m | SB: 83.45m
- Order 12: Douw Smit (South Africa) — PB: 84.79m | SB: 84.79m
– Ends
