Yupun Abeykoon steps closer to Olympic berth with second place win | Page 2 | Sunday Observer

Yupun Abeykoon steps closer to Olympic berth with second place win

14 May, 2021
Yupun Abeykoon
Yupun Abeykoon

Sri Lankan sprinter Yupun Abeykoon broke his own South Asian and a National men’s 100m record with a timing of 10.15 seconds at the Meeting de Savona 2021 held in Italy on Thursday where he is currently based on a scholarship.

He was placed second while Italy’s 20-year old athlete Lorenzo Patta was first with 10.13 seconds.

Last October Abeykoon defeated the German champion Denis Almas to set up new National and South Asian record with 10.16 seconds .Earlier the 100m National record and the South Asian record were held by Himasha Eashan (10.22 secs).

The 26-year old Abeykoon anchored the Sri Lanka 4x100M Relay team to win the gold medal at the South Asian Games in 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal. During the South Asian Games Abeykoon, Himasha Eshan, Vinod Suranjaya and Chanuka Sandeep were able to erase a 15-year-old record of the 4x100 relay established by the Indian team in 2004 (39.91 secs) with a new record timing of 39.14 seconds.

The dedicated sprinter Abeykoon continued his training in Italy even during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic to achieve his dream of representing Sri Lanka at the Tokyo Olympic Games. He needs to run under 10.05 seconds to earn direct qualification to the Olympics.

Abeykoon hails from Pannala and studied at Pannala National School and St Joseph Vaz Wennappuwa. Presently he is training at Fiammegialle Sports Center in Rome under the guidance of coaches Raparelli and Licciardello.

Chamindu Sampath was his school coach until 2015.

Abeykoon earlier represented for Sri Lanka at the South Asian Junior Athletics championship in Ranchi, India 2013 ,World Military Games – 4x100m (Bronze Medal (2015). and South Asian Games – 4x100M Gold Medal (2019)

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