Sri Lanka's javelin champ returns to 'broken' welcome

Sri Lanka's Asian Games medal prospect Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage returned home after winning the title at a top international event on Tuesday to find his prized javelins in pieces.

The 23-year-old rising star, who has taken the javelin world by storm this year with a series of impressive victories, was heartbroken to discover that his javelins had snapped.

"This was a rude shock," Pathirage's coach, Tony Prasanna, told AFP. "We checked in five javelins -- all packed extremely carefully and well -- but all of them arrived broken."

Pathirage posted a photograph of his damaged javelins on social media, listing the distance he had thrown them; "85.98, 92.62, 88.50, 89.20, 89.37, 88.20, 89.68, 92.06, 91.06 good bye".

Pathirage was returning from the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Hungary on Turkish Airlines, and had lodged a complaint.

There was no immediate comment from the airline.

"It is not the cost of a javelin, which is quite high, but the emotional attachment," Prasanna said.

"This is a psychological setback for Rumesh and I will counsel him on it. We were planning to take three of these javelins to the 2028 Olympics and to the Asian Games."

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Sports said it would provide new javelins for Pathirage to compete at the Asian Games in Japan's Nagoya.

"The government will take up this matter with the airline and take appropriate legal action," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that Pathirage -- the first Sri Lankan to become a Diamond League champion -- was the country's gold-medal hopeful at the Asian Games.

Pathirage hurled a world-leading 92.62 metres (303.87 feet) in the Rome Diamond League meet on June 4, and in Zurich last month his 92.07 saw him become only the fourth man in history to exceed 92m twice.

At the Asian Games, he will face Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who holds the Asian record of 92.97m.

India's javelin star Neeraj Chopra is injured and unable to defend his Asian Games gold.