Sri Lankan Rumesh Pathirage continues to dominate the javelin world stage, as he produced a third 90-plus throw of his career to win the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest.
Pathirage threw a massive 91.09 metres to take first place ahead of Anderson Peters (86.18) and Julian Weber (85.89).
Earlier this month, the 23-year-old clinched the Diamond League final in Brussels, with a throw of 89.04 m.
The results weren't surprising, considering Pathirage has been the man in form, having produced a world-leading 92.62 m effort in the Rome Diamond League in June.
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In Brussels, Pathirage made a modest start, throwing 75.89 m, but moved into the lead with a third-round effort of 87.11 m. His best on the night that secured him the Ultimate title came in the fourth and final round.
While the Lankan remains in red-hot form, fellow Asian and Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan has been struggling. His 81.49 m was a season’s best and an improvement on 77.41 m, which placed him ninth at the Commonwealth Games on August 1.
Pathirage had taken gold at the Commonwealth Games with a stellar show of 89.75 m that was enough to pip India's Neeraj Chopra, who managed silver with a season best of 85.83 m.
With Nadeem struggling for consistency and Chopra set to miss the Asian Games, Pathirage will enter the competition as the clear favourite for gold. The Games will begin in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on September 19.
What happened to Chopra?India's Olympic hero Chopra did not compete in the Ultimate Championship because he is recovering from an injury sustained in training.
Neeraj had been showing signs of improvement in form, with a season's best of 88.05 m in Lausanne in August, where he was again edged by Pathirage, who took gold with an effort that landed nine centimetres further than the Indian's.
Chopra, however, suffered a ligament tear in his ankle later and will be missed at the upcoming Asian Games.