It is very early in the javelin season, but Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage registered his personal best in javelin of 89.37 metres to achieve the world leading mark and a new meet record at the Champions Track and Field meet on Sunday at the Mahinda Rajpaksa stadium, Diyagama, Srilankansportstv.com reported.
On Instagram, he would dedicate the mark to his heroes, coach Tony Prasanna, his father Thushara sponsors and Duminda Lowe and Chandima Gurusinghe.
The 25-year-old SAAF best athlete from the Ranchi Games in 2025, is now 4th in Asia in all time throws after Arshad Nadeem (92.27), Chao Tsun Cheng (91.36) and Neeraj Chopra (90.23). He had earlier started the season with 83.07 at Perth Classic on V day.
South Asia continues to be where the biggest throws are getting hurled. While the last two Olympic golds were claimed by Indian Neeraj Chopra and Pakistani Arshad Nadeem, the third cricketing powerhouse is catching up.
Exactly a year ago, Sri Lankans Rumesh Pathirage (85.41m) and Sumedha Ranasinghe (85.78m) had taken up the third and second slots respectively behind American season-topper Curtis Thompson (age 29, threw 87.76m at Austin Texas on March 28). Now Rumesh has gone on to take the world top spot for the second time.
After becoming SL national champ last August 2025, he showed tremendous improvement to go to 86.5 m at the Indian Open at Bhubaneswar. He qualified 12th at the World Championships final, but rose up to 7th with 84.38m.
Last year, Rumesh had briefly taken the lead in early season, striking consistency at Perth Classic on training tour in Australia. He had a 82.66 at Strive Program A earlier, but he helped haul up the ambitions of 34-year-old Sumedha Ranasinghe, who regained the Sri Lankan national record eight days later. Now Rumesh has it back after his 89.37 on Sunday.
According to Twitter account @thesidelinesLK, Rumesh, was the first Sri Lankan to break the 85m barrier in men’s javelin from his country.
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The Sidelines had earlier written, “At the age of 16, he was clocking over 130kph and even won second place at Sri Lanka’s Fastest cricket bowling competition for upcoming fast bowlers just behind one of the current pace sensations who is to play the IPL, but coach Tony Prasanna saw potential in him with the javelin.”
Rumesh’s career best had been the 85.45m to take gold at the Asian Throwing Championship, but he’s taken giant strides in the last two years.
Rumesh, as per The Sidelines, played cricket for Palee National School, Horana and was vice captain of the Kaluthara district team. Alongside cricket, he pursued athletics, dabbling at javelin and discus.
At 16, in a pace talent hunt, Rumesh clocked 134 kph in the U18 category and was second only behind Eshan Malinga, who is with SRH in IPL now. However coach Tony persuaded Rumesh who was performing well at Junior John Tarbet meet in javelin to focus exclusively on the T&F event and move to St Peter’s College from where he became U20 record holder and went to World Juniors.
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As per The Selection, Rumesh’s 85.45m at the Asian Throws for gold, broken the national record held by Sumedha Ranasinghe, the seasoned pro ten years his senior. However Rumesh fell 5 cm short of qualifying for the Olympics.
He went on a training tour to Australia and has been improving his trade there.
Military man Sumedha Ranasinghe, on the other hand, went to the Rio Olympics, but had retaken the national record from Rumesh with a 85.78m on March 9 that year. He is a 6-time national champion, but at 34 had seen a resurgence pushed no doubt by Rumesh throwing 85.41 at Western Australia Athletics Stadium, Perth on March 1.
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