Doha’s reputation for producing high quality javelin competitions looks set to continue as world leader Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (SRI) – who threw a national record of 92.62m to win the Diamond League meeting in Rome on 4 June – will line up at the Qatar Sports Club on Friday 19 June alongside Arshad Nadeem (PAK) and Keshorn Walcott (TTO), the reigning Olympic and world champions respectively.
In a field bursting with talent, the trio are joined at the Mazzraty Doha Meeting by a host of stars including former two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist Anderson Peters (GRN), and world bronze medallist Curtis Thompson (USA).
The precedent has been set for standout results. 12 months ago there was a stadium-wide celebration as 2021 Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra (IND) threw beyond 90m for the first time to set a national record of 90.23m, but in one of the greatest javelin competitions of all time, Julian Weber (GER) responded with 91.06m on his sixth and final throw to take the win in a new world lead and personal best (at the time).
On that occasion, Peters finished in third (85.64m), Walcott in fourth (84.65m), and Ahmed Sameh Mohamed Hussein (EGY) – who also returns for this year’s event – in fifth (80.95m).
Pathirage – the first Sri Lankan male javelin thrower to reach a World Athletics Championships final, finishing seventh in 2025 – is an exciting young talent and will compete in Doha for the first time.
His 92.62m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome added more than two metres to Andreas Thorkildsen’s 20-year-old meeting record and moved him to eighth on the world all-time list. It was the best throw in the world since the 2024 Olympic final in Paris and he is now the second-best Asian thrower in history behind Nadeem who threw 92.97m on that occasion to win gold.
“Competing against the world’s best athletes is a dream come true for me and I’m incredibly excited to line up in Doha where we’ve witnessed many memorable javelin competitions over the years,” said the 23-year-old former cricketer who made his Diamond League debut in Rabat in May. “I’m in a good place right now both physically and mentally and I’ve got big goals ahead. The conditions in Doha are great for javelin throwers and if everything falls into place we can expect to witness more incredible performances.”
Julius Yego (KEN), former world champion and Olympic silver medallist, and Jakub Vadlejch (CZE), former Olympic and world silver medallist, complete the field.
The Mazzraty Doha Meeting is the seventh meeting of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League. The series comprises 15 of the most prestigious events in global track and field across four different continents and began in Shanghai/Keqiao on 16 May (as a result of the Doha Meeting being rescheduled). It concludes with a single final across two days in Brussels (4-5 September).