South Asian fastest runner Yupun Abeykoon reached another achievement from 100m as he clocked 10.24 seconds in the 2020 Gala Dei Castelli, World athletics bronze level series meet in Switzerland to finish third in last Tuesday(15).
Defending Commonwealth Games champion Akani Simbini from South Africa won the event clocking 10.02 seconds while World junior silver medalist Tortu Filippo from Italy finished seconds with 10.07 seconds. Apart from those two, the race saw former European Champion Martina Churandy from Netherland, Hartmann Joshua from Germany, and Kemp Demek of USA in the finals.
The 25-year Sri Lankan from Pannala presently based in Italy with a schoolarship stunned Dessau’s arena last week (8th) to record a new South Asian record. He beat German Champion Denis Almas to win the 100m to shatter the South Asian and Sri Lanka record of 10.22 seconds set by Himasha Eashan in 2019 during the first National trials.Yupun's aim is to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic and he is presently hard training in Italy. (D.R)
