The three biggest stars in South Asian athletics will go head to head at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on August 21, as Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage takes on India’s Neeraj Chopra and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem in the men’s javelin.
Pathirage has been the breakthrough star of this season, setting a world lead of 92.62m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome before winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
He is now hoping to crown his campaign with a tilt at the Diamond League title, starting in Lausanne later this month.
At Athletissima, he faces a formidable field of Olympic and world champions.
Chopra won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 and became the first Indian athlete to be crowned Diamond League champion when he won the title in 2022.
Pakistan’s Nadeem is the reigning Olympic champion, having thrown an Asian record of 92.97m to beat Chopra to gold in the final at Paris 2024.
The three South Asian stars are joined in Lausanne by 2016 Olympic champion Thomas Röhler and 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott, as well as 2024 Diamond League champion Anderson Peters.
Lausanne is the 12th leg of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League, which began in Shanghai/Keqiao on May 16 and ends at the two-day series final in Brussels on September 4-5.
The series unites the biggest names in track and field in some of the world’s most iconic arenas, crossing four continents and 15 cities over the course of the season.
