Yupun clocks 10.09 seconds – Step away from Olympic dream

Italy based sprinter Yupun Abeykoon clocked wind aided 10.09seconds (+2.2 m/s)in the Men’s 100m final at the Anhalt 2021 athletic meet, held in Dessau, Germany on Friday. It is the fastest 100m time by Sri Lankan in any condition as he surpassed previous fastest time of 10.11 (+3.1m/s) set by Himasha Eashan in 2019.

with this time Yupun will achieve his highest ever performance score in the World Athletics Ranking table despite him losing points for plus wind. His performance of 10.09 seconds and first place in the IAAF continental tour bronze medal event will give him 1123 points which will make his overall performance score as 1175 points compare to current which is 1152 in the Ranking table .This will put him touching distance with Olympic qualification quota which is to be updated soon .
He is the current Sri Lanka record holder of the Men’s 100m event when he achieved 10.15seconds at the Meeting di Savona held in Italy on May 13, a week prior to his achievement in Germany .

On September 8, 2020, he shattered the South Asian record as well as national record held by Eashan in the Men’s 100m event (10.22 sec) with a timing of 10.16 seconds at the same event held in Dessau, Germany.

Hailing from Pannala , Yupun schooled to Pannala National School and then to St.Josep Vaz College Wennappuwa . He compete at 2015 World Military Games for Sri Lanka winning bronze medal in the men’s 4x100m relay and was part of Gold medal winning 4x100m relay team in South Asian Games 2019 .

In January 2021, Abeykoon renewed his own personal and national Sri Lanka 60m indoor record with a timing of 6.59seconds at the Italian Indoor Championship. His previous indoor record timing was 6.78seconds which he achieved in 2017.