Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage has won Sri Lanka’s first ever gold medal in athletics at a Commonwealth Games, taking the men’s javelin title at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow with a throw of 89.75 metres.
The 23-year-old sealed the competition with his second-round effort, a mark none of the field could answer over the remaining rounds. It was one of only two legal throws he registered all evening, in cold and gusting conditions with temperatures around 14 degrees Celsius, The Hindu reported.
India’s Neeraj Chopra, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, took silver with a season-best 85.83 metres on his second attempt. His compatriot Yashvir Singh claimed bronze on his Games debut with a personal best of 85.41 metres, thrown with his sixth and final attempt after sitting seventh going into the last round.
The final delivered a significant upset. Defending champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, the Paris 2024 Olympic gold medallist, went out after three rounds. World champion Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago finished sixth on 82.55 metres, and India’s Rohit Yadav was seventh with 81.56 metres.
Al Jazeera noted that Tharanga beat three Olympic champions in a single final — Nadeem, Chopra and Walcott, winners in 2024, 2020 and 2012 respectively.
The result is Sri Lanka’s first Commonwealth Games gold of any kind in two decades. The last came at Melbourne 2006, when weightlifter Chinthana Vidanage won the men’s 62kg division.
Tharanga had already topped the qualifying round on July 30 with 82.84 metres, finishing ahead of both Chopra and Nadeem. He is the only javelin thrower to have passed 90 metres this season, and holds a personal best of 92.62 metres set while winning the Rome Diamond League in June, according to a Press Trust of India report carried by NDTV.
He came to the event late, having started out as a fast bowler in cricket, where he was clocked at 134 kilometres per hour as a teenager.
Update (August 1): President Anura Kumara Dissanayake congratulated Tharanga in a message shared on social media, calling the result the realisation of a national ambition.
“Your gold medal at the Commonwealth Games brings our nation’s golden dream into reality. Congratulations, Rumesh Tharanga!” the President said.
Ada Derana noted that the final concluded early on Saturday morning Sri Lanka time, and that the medal is Sri Lanka’s second of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
