Yupun Abeykoon, who won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham revealed that he struggled for five years to reduce his timing from 10.5 seconds to 10.1 seconds in the 100 metres dash.
“This is how much an athlete has to struggle and stay committed if he wants to enhance his standards. Usain Bolt set his first world record at the age of 17. It took another four years to renew the world record. Yohan Blake created a record at the age of 24 years. Each athlete is different. Some athletes are at their best at the age of 38. I don’t know at what age my best time will be but my training will continue,” said Abeykoon.
Abeykoon said that his value was more than a 100,000 US dollars the amount he spent to train in Italy over a period of 30 months.
He said he was holding discussions with Sri Lanka Cricket over a monetary gift they had promised him.
“Many countries in the world have athletes from other countries representing them. Countries like Bahrain and Qatar buy athletes. When they do that, it is a challenge for us and it’s becoming normal now,” noted Abeykoon.
“My ambition next year is to win the gold medal at the Asian Games and Asian Championships. But it’s not easy. Another dream of mine is to win a medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris,” quipped Abeykoon.