Rumesh Tharanga has returned to first place in the World Athletics men’s javelin throw rankings, NewsFirst reported on Wednesday night.
The Sri Lankan leads the latest list on 1,363 points. Germany’s Julian Weber is second on 1,342, a gap of 21 points.
NewsFirst attributed the move to Tharanga’s victory at the Lausanne Diamond League meeting last week, where he threw 88.14m to beat India’s Neeraj Chopra by nine centimetres. Weber had withdrawn from that field.
He has held the position before
This is Tharanga’s second spell at the top rather than a first. He first reached world No. 1 on 6 August, becoming the first Sri Lankan to lead the global standings in the event, on 1,354 points to Weber’s 1,348 — a margin of six.
NewsFirst did not say when or how he lost the position in the intervening three weeks, and did not give the effective date of the ranking release. Comparing the two lists, Tharanga has added nine points since early August while Weber has shed six, widening the gap from six points to 21.
The rise has been rapid. Tharanga sat seventh in the world earlier in the season, moved to third in June and then second before the Commonwealth Games. His 89.75m in Glasgow won Sri Lanka’s first Commonwealth Games athletics gold, and his 92.62m in Rome in June remains the world-leading mark of 2026.
Zurich next
Tharanga competes next at the Zurich Diamond League meeting in Switzerland, which NewsFirst said runs from Thursday night into the early hours of Friday morning Sri Lanka time.
Lausanne was his third Diamond League win of the season, after Doha and Rome.
Tharanga, who is 23 and holds the rank of sergeant in the Sri Lanka Air Force, competes internationally under the full name Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage.
As of Wednesday night no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the ranking change. Ada Derana’s sports desk and Daily Mirror’s breaking news list carried no item on it.
