Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage Wins Commonwealth Gold for Sri Lanka after 20 years

Sri Lanka has a Commonwealth champion again.

At Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow on Friday night — early Saturday morning Australian time — Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage threw the javelin 89.75m on his second attempt. No one else got close.

It is Sri Lanka's first Commonwealth Games gold in 20 years.

India's Neeraj Chopra took silver with 85.83m. His teammate Yashvir Singh threw a personal best of 85.41m for bronze. The big shock of the night was Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, the Olympic champion and defending title-holder, who went out after three rounds with a best of 77.41m.

The last Sri Lankan to win Commonwealth gold was weightlifter Chinthana Geethal Vidanage — in Melbourne, back in 2006. Many in our community were there to see it.

This is only Sri Lanka's fifth Commonwealth gold ever. And in athletics, the wait was even longer: the last one was Duncan White in Auckland in 1950, 76 years ago.

Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage is 23, younger than most of the men he just beat. His next goal is Sri Lanka's first Olympic gold, at Los Angeles 2028.

The Glasgow Games close on Sunday 2 August.