Sri Lankan star Rumesh Pathirage’s javelin broken ahead of Asian Games

Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage is Sri Lanka’s best hope for gold at the Asian Games, but his preparations have been thrown out of whack after his javelins were broken on a flight back from the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship.

The 23-year-old won gold in Budapest, Hungary, with a best throw of 91.09 metres to add yet another title to his growing collection this season, including Diamond League champion, Commonwealth Games champion , and the only thrower this season to register two throws over 92m.

But his triumphant homecoming turned sour when he landed in Katunayake to find his equipment broken.

Pathirage posted a picture of the five damaged javelins, including the three he used at the Ultimate Championship, on social media on Tuesday with the caption: “Thank you Turkish Airlines.”

He also listed the distances he had thrown them: “85.98, 92.62, 88.50, 89.20, 89.37, 88.20, 89.68, 92.06, 91.06 good bye.”

“It might be a mistake by the airline, but it caused a priceless loss for me,” Pathirage told reporters. “It’s not a big issue; I’ll move on.”

His coach, Tony Prasanna, lamented the “rude shock” they were greeted with in Sri Lanka.

“We checked in five javelins — all packed extremely carefully and well — but all of them arrived broken,” Prasanna told the AFP news agency.