Sri Lanka's Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage sets 92.07m in Zurich, intensifying rivalry with India's Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj Chopra

NEW DELHI: Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage's sensational season has entered another gear, and for India's Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra, the road to the Diamond League Final and Asian Games now comes with an unmistakable warning. The Sri Lankan javelin star produced a breathtaking 92.07m in Zurich on Thursday to underline why he has become the man to beat this season. It was his second throw beyond 92m in 2026, following his world-leading 92.62m national record in Rome in June. The Zurich effort also pushed Pathirage into rare company. He is only the fourth javelin thrower in history to cross the 92m mark twice, joining legendary names such as Jan Zelezny, Johannes Vetter and Aki Parviainen. Pathirage had to work his way into the competition in Zurich. He opened with 81.50m, improved to 88.23m in the second round and reached 89.90m in the third. After 84.91m in the fourth round and a foul in the fifth, he delivered the knockout blow in the last throw. Former world champion Anderson Peters came second with a season-best 86.93m, while Poland's Dawid Wegner took third with a personal-best 85.16m. The victory was another chapter in Pathirage's extraordinary 2026 campaign. The 23-year-old has now won 11 of his 12 competitions this year, including his last six. After his Rome explosion, he won in Ostrava and at the Doha Diamond League before creating history in Glasgow as Sri Lanka's first Commonwealth Games javelin champion. He then edged out Chopra at the Lausanne Diamond League, winning with 88.14m, just nine centimetres better than the Indian's 88.05m. That was Chopra's best effort of the season. Chopra, a two-time Olympic medallist, skipped Zurich but still qualified for the Diamond League Final in Brussels as the sixth-ranked thrower. The season-ending showdown on Sept 4-5 now presents another major Pathirage-Chopra clash.

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And this is a rivalry that could carry even greater weight soon. After Brussels, both stars are set to have the Asian Games on their radar. For Chopra, the challenge is clear: Pathirage is no longer merely a rising contender. With consistency, distance and an extraordinary winning streak behind him, the Sri Lankan has transformed himself into the benchmark. Zurich only strengthened that message and the pressure, increasingly, is on Chopra. Pathirage's emergence has changed the javelin throw landscape, making every meeting with the Indian a potential season-defining contest ahead for both.

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