Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga etched his name into the history books at the World Athletics Championships 2025, finishing 7th in the men’s javelin throw final held amid pouring rain in Tokyo.
At just 22 years old, Tharanga was the youngest athlete in the final, and his performance marked a watershed moment for Sri Lankan athletics.
Competing in his first senior global final, Tharanga outperformed two Olympic champions — Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, the 2024 Paris gold medallist, and Neeraj Chopra of India, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion. Tharanga’s best throw of 84.38m, achieved in his first attempt, held firm through the next four rounds and secured him a place no Sri Lankan male athlete had ever reached before.
His 7th-place finish is the highest by a Sri Lankan male at any World Athletics Championship and the best performance by a Sri Lankan athlete — male or female — on the global stage since Susanthika Jayasinghe’s 200m bronze medal in 2007.
A former cricketer turned javelin thrower, Tharanga trained under Tony Prasanna and first broke into the spotlight with a top-eight finish at the World Junior Championships. He then crossed the 80m mark in 2024. Although he narrowly missed qualification for the Paris Olympics, Tharanga bounced back this year with a national record throw of 86.50m, earning direct qualification for the World Championships.
The gold medal in Tokyo was claimed by Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago, the 2012 Olympic champion, with a throw of 88.16m. Anderson Peters of Grenada took silver with 87.38m, while Curtis Thompson of the USA secured bronze with 86.67m. India’s Sachin Yadav finished just outside the podium in 4th place with 86.27m, ahead of Chopra and Nadeem.