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Sri Lanka's Rumesh Pathirage came within touching distance of Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem's Asian record while clinching the men's javelin throw title at the Rome Diamond League 2026 on Thursday night.
Pathirage produced a stunning throw of 92.62m at the Stadio Olimpico, finishing just 35 centimetres shy of Nadeem's Asian record and Olympic gold medal-winning mark set at the Paris 2024 Games, as per Olympics.com. The 23-year-old's remarkable effort marked a significant improvement on his previous personal best of 89.37m, achieved at a domestic competition in March. He had also surpassed the 89m mark with a throw of 89.28m at a meet in Nairobi the following month, underlining his rapid rise in the event. In Rome, Pathirage hit the mark on his second attempt of the night after clearing 84.49m with his first. The feat also made the Sri Lankan only the fourth Asian athlete to surpass the 90m barrier in the javelin throw, joining Chinese Taipei's Cheng Chao-Tsun (PB 91.36m), India's Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra (90.23m), and Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who has cleared the distance multiple times in his career. It also shattered the 20-year-old meet record of 90.34m, set by Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen in 2006, by a commanding 2.28 metres. Pathirage also now holds the top two leading throws in men's javelin this year. It was also the new Sri Lankan national record. Former world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada was a distant second in Rome with a best mark of 83.91m, while the USA's Curtis Thompson took third place with 83.89m. Meanwhile, India's Sachin Yadav endured a subdued Diamond League debut in Rome, finishing eighth in a 10-man field, positioned between Olympic medallists Julius Yego and Jakub Vadlejch. His best effort of the competition was 79.18m. It marked the 26-year-old's first international outing since his strong fourth-place finish at last year's World Championships in Tokyo, where he set a personal best of 86.27m. (ANI)
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