Rumesh Tharanga won the men’s javelin at the Weltklasse Zürich Diamond League meeting with a 92.07m throw taken with his sixth and final attempt, the second time the Sri Lankan has passed 92 metres this season.

The competition was held at the Letzigrund Stadium on Thursday night, in the early hours of Friday morning Sri Lanka time. Grenada’s Anderson Peters, the former world champion, finished second with a season-best 86.93m. Poland’s Dawid Wegner was third with a personal best of 85.16m.

Tharanga opened at 81.50m and built through the rounds — 88.23m, then 89.90m, then 84.91m — before fouling his fifth attempt. The win was already secure when he stepped up for the last throw and sent the javelin out to 92.07m, 55 centimetres short of the 92.62m he threw in Rome in June, which stands as his national record and the world-leading mark of 2026.

Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, the London 2012 Olympic champion, was fourth on 83.02m and Kenya’s Julius Yego fifth on 81.66m. Rio 2016 champion Thomas Röhler of Germany finished eighth with 79.86m. India’s Neeraj Chopra, whom Tharanga beat by nine centimetres at Lausanne last week, did not enter.

Fourth Diamond League title in a row

NewsFirst reported the result as Tharanga’s fourth consecutive Diamond League victory, after Rome, Doha and Lausanne. Olympics.com put his 2026 record at 11 wins from 12 competitions, including six in succession — a run that takes in the Rome national record, Ostrava, Doha, Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow and Lausanne.

The 23-year-old, a sergeant in the Sri Lanka Air Force, returned to world No. 1 in the World Athletics rankings on Wednesday on 1,363 points, 21 clear of Germany’s Julian Weber.

Brussels final next

Ada Derana reported that the win secures Tharanga’s place in the Diamond League Final in Brussels on September 4 and 5. World Athletics describes Zurich as the last regular meeting of the Wanda Diamond League season, with athletes competing there for the remaining qualifying points; a win in Brussels also carries automatic entry to the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest.

Ada Derana noted that Tharanga’s 92.62m leaves him 35 centimetres short of the Asian record of 92.97m held by Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, the Paris 2024 Olympic champion.

Sources