{"id":1635,"date":"2026-08-01T00:03:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asianewscast.com\/2026\/08\/01\/pathirage-beats-chopra-and-nadeem-to-win-commonwealth-gold-in-javelin\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:03:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:03:58","slug":"pathirage-beats-chopra-and-nadeem-to-win-commonwealth-gold-in-javelin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=1635","title":{"rendered":"Pathirage beats Chopra and Nadeem to win Commonwealth gold in javelin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage made history with Sri Lanka\u2019s first gold medal in athletics when he saw off a strong field to win the 2026 Commonwealth Games javelin final.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old faced the daunting prospect in Glasgow of battling the great Pakistan and India pairing of Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra, so long the top two in the discipline.<\/p>\n<p>Nadeem, the defending champion who also won Olympic gold at Paris 2024, made a shock early exit after three throws on a blustery evening at Scotstoun Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The going wasn\u2019t much easier for Pathirage, who only registered one legitimate throw in his first five efforts.<\/p>\n<p>That, however, was enough to seal the gold with a throw of 89.75 metres.<\/p>\n<p>Chopra put an injury-plagued year behind him to secure silver with a season best of 85.83, while his compatriot, Yash Vir Singh, threw a personal best of 85.41 to claim bronze.<\/p>\n<p>Five of the finalists had thrown more than 90 metres in their career, including world champion Keshorn Walcott. The Trinidad and Tobago star struggled with his first five throws and only managed 82.55 metres with his last to place sixth.<\/p>\n<p>Pathirage started off as a fast bowler in cricket, where he was clocked \u2013 as a teenager \u2013 at a speed of 134 kilometres per hour (83 miles per hour).<\/p>\n<p>The record speed registered in cricket was 161.3km\/h (100.2mph), bowled by Pakistan great Shoaib Akhtar, who held the nickname \u2018The Rawalpindi Express\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lankan cricket\u2019s loss has clearly been the gain of the rest of the nation.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/afp_6a6d0abbd97b-1785531067.jpg?resize=770%2C513&amp;quality=80\" alt=\"\"><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage made history with Sri Lanka\u2019s first gold medal in athletics when he saw off a strong field to win the 2026 Commonwealth Games javelin final. The 23-year-old faced the daunting prospect in Glasgow of battling the great Pakistan and India pairing of Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra, so long the top two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pathirage beats Chopra and Nadeem to win Commonwealth gold in javelin - Asia Newscast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=1635\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pathirage beats Chopra and Nadeem to win Commonwealth gold in javelin - Asia Newscast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage made history with Sri Lanka\u2019s first gold medal in athletics when he saw off a strong field to win the 2026 Commonwealth Games javelin final. The 23-year-old faced the daunting prospect in Glasgow of battling the great Pakistan and India pairing of Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra, so long the top two [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=1635\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Asia Newscast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-01T00:03:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/asianewscast-1635.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ANC News Desk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ANC News Desk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/?p=1635#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/?p=1635\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ANC News Desk\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2c9f588ee00d3b2b92133babac793e30\"},\"headline\":\"Pathirage beats Chopra and Nadeem to win Commonwealth gold in javelin\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-01T00:03:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/?p=1635\"},\"wordCount\":259,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/?p=1635#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/asianewscast-1635.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/?p=1635\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.asianewscast.com\\\/?p=1635\",\"name\":\"Pathirage beats Chopra and Nadeem to win Commonwealth gold in javelin - 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