Sri Lanka's Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage on June 4 scripted history on his Diamond League debut in Rome. Pathirage's second throw was 92.62 metres, the second-best by an Asian javelin thrower. The throw left the crowd at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, Rome, shell-shocked as Pathirange went from first attempt to 84.49 metres to adding more than 8 metres in the next.
Pathirage surpassed India's double Olympics medallist Neeraj Chopra (90.23m) and Chinese Taipei's Cheng Chao-Tsun (91.36m) to take the second spot in the all-time Asian athletes' list. The top spot belongs to Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem who threw 92.97 metre to win gold medal at Paris Olympics 2024.
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Before breaching the 90 metre mark on June 4, he came close to the magic number in a domestic event in March. He recorded 89.37 metre throw in the domestic meet.
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23-year-old Pathirage also broke the 20-year-old meet record of 90.34 which belonged to Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen.
"The weather feels good in Rome to throw further than at the last competition. Winning today feels like a Sri Lankan festival," he said after the event.
Pathirage miles ahead in Rome
There was a huge difference between the winner of Diamond League leg in Rome to the runners-up. Grenada’s Anderson peters recorded a 83.91m throw in the fifth round. The Paris Olympics 2024 bronze medallist was closely followed by American Olympian Curtis Thompson with 83.89m.
Sachin’s underwhelming Diamond League deut
Meanwhile, in Neeraj's absence, Sachin Yadav made his Diamond League debut. The 26-year-old's best throw was 79.18m in his second attempt. He finished eighth at the event. Neeraj is likely to return to action in Doha Diamond League where he breached the 90-metre mark in the previous meet.
Second-fastest bowler in talent search to ace javelin thrower
Notably, Pathirage was a fast bowler who made stumps fly. He has played in the Under-19 category and was picked alongside Eshan Malinga in a pace talent search in 2019. He left the cricket field due to politics in selection and gave javelin his full focus which paid dividends on June 4.