Tuesday, September 15 2026
Tuesday, September 15 2026
MONETABRIEF – Sri Lanka’s Asian Games medal hope Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage returned home Tuesday after winning gold at a major international event to find his delight turned to despair following a Turkish Airlines flight.
The 23-year-old, who has enjoyed a string of victories this year, was travelling from Budapest to Colombo via Istanbul aboard Turkish airlines. His all five checked-in javelins were damaged when he received them at the Bandaranaike International.
Two of the damaged javelins had been presented to him after his gold-medal win at the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest on September 13.
“This was a rude shock,” his coach, Tony Prasanna, 54, said. “We never expected this to happen when using an international airline. All five javelins were packed extremely carefully, but arrived broken.”
Prasanna said the javelins had previously travelled safely on domestic flights in Europe. “It is not just the cost – each is about 600,000 rupees -- but the emotional attachment Rumesh had with his lucky javelins,” he said.
Pathirage posted a photograph of the broken javelins on Facebook, writing: “85.98, 92.62, 88.50, 89.20, 89.37, 88.20, 89.68, 92.06, 91.06 — goodbye and thank you, especially Turkish Airlines.”
The airline did not immediately comment. Sri Lanka’s Sports Ministry said the government would provide replacement javelins for the Asian Games in Nagoya and would take up the matter with Turkish Airlines.
Pathirage is Sri Lanka’s first Diamond League champion and a leading contender for gold at both the Asian Games and the 2028 Olympics. T
He threw a world-leading 92.62 metres in Rome on 4 June and became only the fourth man to exceed 92 metres twice after recording 92.07m in Zurich last month.
He will face Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, the Asian record-holder with 92.97m, in Japan. Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra is injured and will not defend his Asian Games title. (COLOMBO/Sept15/2026)
| 3 month bill | 9.22% | 22bp ▼ |
| 12-m bill | 9.91% | 10bp ▼ |
| Gold (Ounce) | $4602 | - - |
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