Sept 16 (Reuters) - Rumesh ⁠Tharanga Pathirage is Sri Lanka's best hope ⁠for gold at the Asian Games but ‌his preparations have been thrown out of whack after his javelins were broken on a flight back from the inaugural ​World Athletics Ultimate Championship.

The 23-year-old won ⁠gold in Budapest ⁠with a best throw of 91.09m but his triumphant ⁠homecoming ‌turned sour when he landed in Katunayake.

Pathirage posted a picture of five damaged ⁠javelins, including the three he used at ​the Ultimate ‌Championship, on social media on Tuesday with the ⁠caption: "Thank you ​Turkish Airlines."

Turkish Airlines did not immediately reply to a request for comment outside normal business hours in ⁠Turkey.

Pathirage, who became world number ​one last month, is expected to battle Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem for the gold medal at ⁠the September 19 to October 4 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

"It might be a mistake by the airline but it caused a priceless loss for me," Pathirage ​told reporters. "It’s not a big ⁠issue, I’ll move on."

Media reports in Sri Lanka ​said the country's sports ministry ‌would provide Pathirage with a ​new set of javelins.

(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Purulia, India; Editing by Peter Rutherford)