Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga’s record-breaking javelins damaged in flight ahead of Asian Games

Sri Lankan javelin star Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage’s preparations for the 2026 Asian Games, stating on September 19, have suffered a major setback after all five of his competition javelins were damaged during a flight back to Colombo.

Pathirage took to Instagram to share pictures of the damaged equipment, simply captioning one post, “bad luck”. In another story, he wrote “Thank You Turkish Airlines” alongside a broken-heart emoji.

The 23-year-old was returning to Sri Lanka from Budapest after winning the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Hungary on Sunday when the equipment was damaged inside the aircraft.

“All five of my winning javelins were damaged inside the aircraft. I was trying to use them at the upcoming Asian Games, the 2028 Olympics and the World Championship,” Tharanga said.

The athlete has since lodged a complaint with the airline over the damage.

The incident is particularly frustrating for Tharanga because all three of his throws beyond the 90-metre mark this year came with javelins that were among those damaged during the flight.

Tharanga first crossed the 90m barrier at the Rome Diamond League in June, producing a national-record throw of 92.62m. The effort remains the world-leading mark in 2026.

He followed that with a 92.07m throw to win the Zurich Diamond League last month, finishing ahead of India’s two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra, who took second place.

Tharanga also got the better of Chopra to claim javelin gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July.

His latest 90m-plus performance came at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, where he secured the title with a throw of 91.09m.

The Sri Lankan is enjoying a remarkable season, having won 12 of the 13 competitions he has contested. His only defeat came at the Rabat Diamond League, where he finished runner-up.