Asian Games javelin gold medallist Rumesh Tharanga once bowled at 134 kmph

Rumesh Tharanga is no ordinary athlete. The 23-year-old Sri Lankan made history on Monday by winning the gold medal in the men’s javelin throw at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, securing Sri Lanka’s first gold of the Games.

Tharanga took the lead with a throw of 88.33 metres on his third attempt at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium. He then saved his best for last, producing an 88.55m effort in his final throw to seal the title.

India’s Yashvir Singh won silver with 84.72m, while compatriot Rohit Yadav took bronze with 84.35m.

But long before Tharanga became a javelin champion, his sporting ambitions were centred on cricket.

And he had more than just a childhood dream. He had the pace to back it up.

Cricket was Tharanga’s main sport until 2017, with fast bowling his specialty. At around 17, he clocked a delivery at 134 kmph – a speed that convinced him he could have gone far in the sport had he stayed with it.

“Even today, if I played cricket, I could reach that level,” Tharanga told Olympics.com.

“Cricket is what I still love to this day,” he said. “But still, I felt that doing an individual event is better than a group event.”

Growing up in Horana, Tharanga was far more drawn to sport than the classroom. Athletics was his first sporting passion, with the 100m and 200m among the events he initially competed in. His connection with throwing also began early, influenced by his father, who competed in discus. “I was not really that studious, and I was almost never in class,” Tharanga recalled. “I liked to spend my time in the grounds and move on with sports more than with studies.”

His sporting journey began to take a decisive turn after he joined St. Peter’s College in Colombo.

He arrived at the school as a discus thrower and soon began experimenting with the javelin. Cricket remained an important part of his life, but gradually, Tharanga began to believe that an individual discipline offered him a better path to a sporting career.

Eventually, he walked away from both cricket and discus to concentrate entirely on the javelin.

Yet his years as a fast bowler were far from wasted.

Tharanga believes the movement patterns he developed while bowling helped him make the transition to javelin, even though the two disciplines require different techniques.

“Having fast-bowled previously actually provided a big help for javelin,” he explained.

“Bowling a cricket ball and throwing a javelin are two different things, though the movement is similar. Javelin is thrown upwards, while cricket bowling is aimed downwards at the wicket. But still, it helped a lot for javelin.”

His fascination with fast bowling did not disappear even after javelin became his main focus. In fact, his 134 kmph delivery came after he had joined St. Peter’s and was already involved in javelin.

“I actually went just out of personal interest, just to try bowling,” he said.