A Sri Lankan Won a Diamond League Title for the First Time and a Ten Million Dollar Meeting Is Next

Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage won the javelin at the Diamond League final in Brussels on Saturday 5 September with 89.04 metres, the first Sri Lankan to win a Diamond League title.

He opened with 80.42 and 79.73 before the third round throw that settled it. Dawid Wegner of Poland was second with a personal best of 87.47 and Keshorn Walcott third with a season best of 83.99. Tharanga is 23, ranked first in the world, and threw a national record 92.62 in Rome this season. He beat Neeraj Chopra to Commonwealth gold in Glasgow this year; Chopra missed Brussels with a torn ankle ligament.

The two nights at the King Baudouin Stadium produced several marks. Armand Duplantis withdrew from the pole vault as a precaution with leg tightness and Emmanouil Karalis won it with a meeting record 6.12. Collen Kebinatshipi ran 43.40 for a Diamond League record over 400 metres and Chase Jackson threw 21.14 in the shot, also a series record.

The final pays 30,000 dollars to a winner in the Diamond disciplines and 60,000 in the Diamond Plus events, from a purse of 2.24 million.

Budapest is next. The first World Athletics Ultimate Championship runs from 11 to 13 September at the National Athletics Centre, three evening sessions of three hours, 28 events and a prize fund of 10 million dollars. Track events are capped at sixteen athletes and field events at eight, with the field contested as single finals. Winners of the Diamond League finals are among those who qualify.