Yupun crashes in third heat of men’s 100m
South Asia’s fastest man, Yupun Abeykoon, failed to live up to expectations when he crashed out in the third heat of the Men’s 100m event, at the IAAF World Athletic Championship on Saturday which took place in Oregon, USA.
Abeykoon, who became the first Sri Lankan sprinter to run a sub 10 second in the Men’s 100m a fortnight ago, clocked 10.19secs and was placed fifth in the third of the seven heats, which determined the final 18 sprinters who would compete in the semi-finals of the event. In fact the 27 year old Sri Lankan Army athlete finished with 9.96 seconds at 100m recently in Switzerland and set up a new National and South Asian record was disappointed with his performance at this heat of the World Athletic Championship.
Trayvon Bromell of the USA won the third heat with a timing of 9.89 secs, to qualify for the semi-final, alongside Arthur Cisse of Ivory Coast, who clocked 10.02 secs and Rodrigo do Nascimento of Brazil, who finished third in 10.11 secs.
“Can’t be happy with the results today, I wanted to be in the semi-finals, nevertheless, things did not work out as planned due to hectic issues,” Abeykoon had commented on his social media platforms.
However, it’s time to talk with my coaches and study the mistakes and work on those details,” he added.
Canada’s Jerome Blake was the only sprinter to finish above Abeykoon with a timing of 10.16secs. Subsequently, Abeykoon was placed 30th overall among 56 sprinters who competed in seven heats, and ended the journey in his debut IAAF World Championship.
Abeykoon, who is currently based in Italy, had claimed the Sri Lankan and South Asian records in the Men’s 100m on several occasions, beginning from September 8, 2020, when he clocked 10.16 secs at an athletic event held in Dessau, Germany. On May 13, 2021, he renewed the record by clocking 10.15 secs at the Meeting di Savona Championship held in Italy. Weeks later, during the same month, Abeykoon clocked 10.09secs at Anhalt 2021 in Germany to better his own record at national and regional levels.
Later in 2021, Abeykoon earned the rare honour of becoming the first Sri Lankan to represent the country at the Diamond League, where he performed impressively to earn qualification for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. On July 3, 2022,
Sri Lanka Athletics and Sports Ministry gave assistance to Abeykoon while Sri Lanka Cricket recently came up with an annual sponsorship of US$ 50,000 to support the athlete for a period of two years.
However, as soon as finished the 100m race with a superb time of 9.96 seconds, he gave an interview and said Sri Lankan officials did not support him and sent some emails which were not supportive of him. Sri Lanka athletic officials and Sports Ministry were not happy about Abeykoon’s interview.