In a small coastal town just south of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, a young Rumesh Pathirage daydreamed about running away from school to a field where he could practise fast bowling, running, or anything other than being buried in books. Academic excellence was not the promised path to glory for him. His path was on a synthetic rubber track, from which he would launch his javelin until it landed in the history books and made him world number one.
Losing is not in Pathirage's vocabulary for 2026. Since February, he has won all but one of the competitions he has contested. He is the only thrower this year and the fourth in history to breach the 92-metre mark twice in a season — rare in the javelin books — and the only Sri Lankan to win the prestigious Diamond League final, the island nation's first Commonwealth gold medallist in 20 years and the only South Asian to win a medal at the inaugural Ultimate Championships this month.
Come Saturday, the 23-year-old from Kalutara will attempt to win his final title of the season — the Asian Games gold — and attempt to break the 92.97m Asian record en route to continental triumph. "The biggest prize is winning Olympic gold for Sri Lanka," a nonchalant Pathirage told Al Jazeera in an online interview after the Zurich Diamond League victory, which saw him cross the 92m mark for a record second time.
Sri Lanka is not a sporting powerhouse, nor does it boast exceptional facilities, but it gave the likes of Pathirage and Jayasinghe a grassroots platform to springboard to global stardom. Across the country, school- and regional-level competitions prepare younger athletes for the national stage under the guidance of local coaches. Under the tutelage of Tony Prasanna, Pathirage's throws have steadily progressed from the 60m range in 2019 to mid-80m figures more recently.
Pathirage is already paying his success forward. When well-wishers offered financial assistance to replace his javelins broken days before the Asian Games, he requested that the money be redirected to struggling athletes instead. His main source of support has been the Sri Lankan air force and a generous diaspora. However, that no major international sportswear brand has signed Pathirage, despite him being world number one, speaks volumes about the European chokehold that overshadows success from South Asian athletes.
Source: www.aljazeera.com