Can Rumesh Tharanga Break Into The World's Top 5?
Just how good is Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage, the current World Lead in Men's Javelin? The 23 year old from Sri Lanka has gone up by two places to achieve his career best rank of 7 but we think he can go up another 2!
For the first time in many years, we’re finally having the discussion that Sri Lanka finally has an “Elite” athlete with the potential to finish on some of the biggest podiums, but how good is Rumesh Tharanga right now?
There is absolutely no doubt that this 23 year old throwing prodigy has found his mark as the world lead this year, with a best of 89.37m in a Sri Lankan meet and making another 89m throw at the Kip Keino Classic in Kenya.
Let’s analyse his numbers as of now!
How Rankings Work in Athletics
Before anything else, we need to first see how the whole ranking system works.
World Athletics rates athletes considering their best 5 performances within the last 365 days, and as seen in his profile above, you can see that his personal best throw is only the third best in terms of total points, and his fourth best throw has more total points. That’s where the competitiveness factor comes into the picture.
Performance alone can’t get you a high rating, but the level of the competition where you get placed has a bigger say. Similar to how Tennis players get higher rating points at Grand Slams, each competition has a grading system in place with different points on offer depending on the final rank in the finals and the grade of the event. See the graph below on the breakdown of place points.
Can Rumesh break into the Top 5?
The simple answer is yes, and here’s the simplest explanation as to how.
If you look at the current top list as of the 28th of April, you’ll see Curtis Thompson in 5th place. That means Rumesh needs a rounded up average of 1287 points with the assumption that Curtis does not improve his rating points.
If you multiply the points to be 5th place by 5 and subtract Rumesh's best 4 performance points since we want to replace his 5th best result, you get a target of 1302 points to be achieved in the next meet.
Considering his next meet in Japan for the Seiko Grand Prix, an A grade World Continental Athletics Tour competition, his best possible outcome would to be placed first which gains him 100 points. Then when you subtract that from the calculated 1302 points, you’re left with a result score of 1202 that is equivalent to a minimum distance of 87.05m (which is reasonably achievable on current form).
However, this is only an assumption based on the most recent event to come and he has plenty more competitions, including the Diamond League that gains him more points and exposure than the World Continental Tour for he has earned that rightful place by being among the world’s best throwers!