Yupun among top 15 as World Championship commences today

by Reemus Fernando

Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe’s 22.55 seconds feat to win her second World Championship medal, a bronze, in Osaka in 2007 was the 16th fastest performance in the world in the women’s 200 metres that season (2007). No Sri Lankan sprinter, male or female had produced performances that could be ranked among the top 20 in the world since Jayasinghe’s medal winning feat, until Italy-based sprinter Yupun Abeykoon produced a stunning sub 10 seconds feat in the 100 metres early this month. Abeykoon will compete in the men’s 100 metres preliminaries as the 15th fastest sprinter on the globe this season when the World Athletics Championships commences in Oregon, USA today.

Alongside Abeykoon, there are two others who have clocked 9.96 seconds sharing the 15th position. USA’s Kyree King, who is not competing in the individual event and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo are also ranked 15th with the same performance. The current position the 27-year-old is enjoying matches the target that his coach had set for him.

After joining the sub 10 seconds club in track and field’s glamorous discipline, Abeykoon told his fans that a medal at the Asian Games which was to be held this year and running the semi-finals at the World Championship were among the targets that they had set for this year.

The Asian Games was postponed but Abeykoon has risen above the rest of the sprinters in Asia this season. He is the fastest Asian in the 100 metres this year and also the only Asian to run sub 10 seconds this year.

Like a host of other athletes heading for Oregon, Sri Lanka’s trio of Abeykoon, Gayanthika Abeyratne and Nilani Ratnayake remained uncertain about their participation in the championships until the last moment due to delays in obtaining US visas. That must have had a huge impact on him as he takes to the field two days after landing.

Irrespective of the competitors that he will be meeting in the heats, Abeykoon is expected to advance to the next round and from there on it would be anybody’s game. The World Athletics was yet to publish the start lists of the men’s 100 metres when this edition went to press.