Rumesh Pathirage Wins Javelin Gold for Sri Lanka With 88.55m Final Throw

Sri Lanka's Rumesh Pathirage won the men's javelin at the Asian Games in Nagoya with a throw of 88.55m on his final attempt. It is Sri Lanka's only gold so far in the medal table.

Pathirage took the lead with 88.33m on his fourth throw and then improved it with his last one to close out the title. India's Yashvir Singh took silver with a personal best of 85.72m, and his teammate Rohit Yadav took bronze with 84.35m.

The 23-year-old came to Nagoya as the favourite. He had won all but one of the competitions he entered this year and is one of only four throwers in history to have passed 92m in a single year. He has said he wants to go after Arshad Nadeem's Asian record of 92.97m. The winning mark today is just short of the 88.88m that won gold at Hangzhou.

The javelin final was one of several athletics finals held on Monday. Japan, China and Qatar also took golds on the track and in the field.