Dinesh won the Gold for Sri Lanka at Tokyo Paralympics

Former Sri Lankan soldier Dinesh Priyantha Herath, a two-time silver medallist in the Javelin Throw F46 category at the World Para Athletic Championships in London (2017) and Dubai (2019) has won the gold at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. He also won a bronze medal for Sri Lanka in the Rio Paralympic Games in 2016

Dinesh set a World Record in the Men’s Javelin Throw event with a record throw of 67.79m.

India’s Devendra Jhajharia won silver in the event with a throw of 64.35 as India’s Sundar Singh Gurjar bagged bronze with an effort of 64.01 in the Men’s Javelin Throw F46 Final.

Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Priyantha managed to surpass the previous world record of 63.97 meters set by India’s Devendra Jhajharia at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio. 

The flag bearer and captain of the nine-member Sri Lankan contingent for the 2020 Summer Paralympics, Dinesh Priyantha had won a silver medal in the javelin event in the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships.

He is the first Sri Lankan to win a silver medal at a World Para Athletics Championships.

During the 2018 Asian Para Games, he set a new Asian Para Games record in javelin throw of 61.84m to secure gold medal in the men’s F46 javelin throw event. 

He had also claimed silver medal in men’s 46 category at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships by clearing a distance of 60.59 meters.

Herath’s rise to the brink of the pinnacle of Paralympic glory is a fairytale story for someone who never played sports seriously when he was at school or even after joining the Army in 2004 after completing his education.

Hailing from a hamlet in Kekirawa, 160 miles outside of the capital Colombo, the eldest son in a family of three was thrust into the role of breadwinner after the demise of his father when he was just 12.

He was part of the Sri Lanka Army’s 57th Brigade during the civil war in 2008. His left arm was injured by the gunshot wounds and spent nearly four years in rehabilitation to recuperate. Having just married just a few months before his injury, Herath contemplated his future of living with a disability for the rest of his life. However, a man who put his life on the line for the country was in no mood to give up that easy.

With the encouragement from his superiors in the Army, he took part in badminton and volleyball becoming the best player in the inter-regiment Para Athletics competition in 2012, in addition to winning gold medals in the throwing event. His life-changing moment came when he picked up the javelin throwing record distances in the F46 category at national and international level.