Yupun: Asia’s quickest sprinter roars again with Florence triumph

Yupun Abeykoon, Asia’s quickest runner within the 150m race and winner of a bronze medal within the Commonwealth Video games for the 100m dash, got here again robust after almost a yr lay off from aggressive athletics. On Saturday he triumphed within the 150m race on the Florence Dash Pageant held in Stadio Luigi Ridolfi within the metropolis of Florence, Italy.

Abeykoon, who lives in Italy, dashed throughout the end line in 15.19 seconds, abandoning six Italian rivals within the first closing race. He’s 29 years outdated and already holds the Asia report for the 150m race, which he set in 2022 in Italy.

On this race, Chituru Ali got here second with a time of 15.20 seconds, incomes the silver medal, whereas Mattia Donola took the bronze with a time of 15.74 seconds. All different individuals had been Italians, and the second closing additionally featured Italian runners.

Abeykoon is an enormous deal in Sri Lanka’s athletics scene, holding nationwide data within the 100m, 150m, and 200m races. He missed out on the final Asian Video games resulting from accidents, however his comeback is a big morale increase forward of the Paris Summer time Olympics later this yr.

Again in 2019, Abeykoon helped Sri Lanka win gold within the males’s 4 × 100m relay occasion on the South Asian Video games. He was a part of the staff that set new nationwide and South Asian Video games data in that occasion.

Yupun Abeykoon, who made historical past as the primary Sri Lankan athlete to win a Commonwealth Video games 100-metre medal at Birmingham 2022, has been awarded a grant of Rs.36 million to help his coaching for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Having represented Sri Lanka within the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Abeykoon is aiming to compete within the 100m race on the 2024 Paris Summer time Olympics, scheduled from July 26 to August 11.

Sajeewa Jayakody