By winning the Bronze medal in the 100 metres event at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Birmingham on August 4, Yupun Abeykoon has become the first ever Sri Lankan athlete to win a Commonwealth Games medal in the 100m and Sri Lanka’s first major athletic medal in 24 years.
Before that, Sriyani Kulawansa won Silver medal in Women’s 100m hurdles and Sugath Thilakaratne won Bronze medal in Men’s 400m at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in 1998. Of course, there is no way to forget about Duncan White’s Gold medal in 400m Hurdles at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland 1950 where he established a new CWG record as well - he continues to remain the only Gold medallist for Sri Lanka in the history of CWGs.
First Asian to win a CWGs medal in 100m
Yupun’s finishing time at the CWG’s 100m race is 10.14 seconds. He is only 0.01 seconds behind Tokyo Olympic Games finalist Akani Simbine of South Africa who took Silver at CWGs. The Gold medalist Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala’s timing is 10.02 seconds. The amazing thing about Yupun’s race is that though he was fourth in the (3rd) semi-final where he finished with 10.20 seconds, he had placed first in the first round clocking 10.06 seconds.
There, he managed to finish with an all-time fastest timing in the Commonwealth Games history for 100m heats’ first rounds. The previous fastest time was set by Glenroy Gilbert of Canada who did it in 10.10 seconds in 1994 Victoria Games. According to sports analysts, Yupun Abeykoon is the first Asian to win a Commonwealth Games medal in the 100m event.
First South Asian to break 10-sec. barrier
Meanwhile, on July 3, Yupun set another record. He became the first ever South Asian to break the 10-second barrier by a time of 9.96 secs in the 100m when he ran at the Resisprint International Chaux-de-Fonds 2022 held in Switzerland. He won its Gold medal and Cuban sprinter Reynier Mena won the Silver finishing it with 9.99 secs while Michael Zeze Meba bagged Bronze clocking 10.00 secs. There he broke his previous time of 10.06 secs which he set May 25, 2022 at the Paul-Greifzu-Stadion, Dessau in Germany.
When Yupun became the first athlete from South Asia to run sub-10, Sri Lanka also automatically became the 32nd country with a sub-10 sprinter, and Yupun was the 167th member of the sub-10 club.
It is also noteworthy to mention that when he recorded the time of 9.96 secs in the final of the heat, earlier in the day he finished first with a time of 10.11s. He advanced in 0.15 secs which is remarkable. And in the Stockholm Diamond League just two days before the record breaking event, the sprinter had a disappointing start in the heat where he clocked 10.21secs becoming 4th. However, in subsequent heats, he showed his colours with 10.04 secs in Savona, 10.06 secs in Anhalt and 10.08 secs in Ostrava.
Other records
After adding new 150m and 60m running events into the athletic games in recent time, Yupun also became part of it. Accordingly, on April 24, 2022, he broke the Asian record in the men’s 150m event with a timing of 15.16 seconds to claim Gold medal in the Perseo Trophy held at the Stadio Raul Guidobaldi in Rieti, Italy. The previous record of 15.35 seconds was set by Japan’s Yoshihide Kiryu in 2017.
According to the Wikipedia facts, in January 2021, he renewed his own personal and national 60m indoor record with a timing of 6.59 seconds at the Italian indoor championship. He surpassed his own national indoor record of 6.78 seconds which he achieved in 2017.
At the 12th Castiglione International Meeting in Grosseto, Italy, held on May 22, this year, the sprinter shattered the existing South Asian and Sri Lanka records in the 200 meters clocking a time of 20.37 seconds. There, he broke the previous record of 20.68 seconds set by Vinoj Suranjaya de Silva in 2018 and the South Asian record of 20.52 seconds set by India’s Amlan Borgohain just last April.
The boost in sprinting
Looking back, the history of the achievements by Sri Lankan sprinters, there are many sprinters who created history before Abeykoon. The first is, undoubtedly, Duncan White. He was the first Olympic medal for Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) winning the Silver medal in the 400-metre hurdles at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. He was also the second South Asian to have won an Olympic medal in track and field after Norman Pritchard of India.
Then, we come across Wickramesinghe Wimaladasa who won Silver medal in the 400m in 1970 Bangkok Asian Games and Gold medal for 400m in Tehran Asian Games. Next, emerges Sunil Benedict Gunawardana or Sunil Gunawardhane, who represented Sri Lanka in the 200m event at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, and who later became a well-known athletic coach. Although beaten in the second round of the 200m in Munich Olympics, he recorded a time of 21.31s which was the best for an Asian. In 1974, he was a member of the 400x4m Sri Lanka Relay Team which won the Gold Medal at the Asian Games in Teheran setting up a new Asian record.
In the 1990s, a new boost started in Sri Lanka sprints. It began with Sriyantha Dissanayake who won Bronze for 100m and Silver for 200m in 1990 Beijing Asian Games. After Sriyantha, Chinthaka de Zoysa took his place. In 1994, Chinthaka won the 100m with a record time of 10.54s and had the honour of erasing Sriyantha Dissanayake’s previous record of 10.64s. He went on to improve that record by clocking 10.33s in the following year. He then recorded a time of 10.29s in 1999 and that record existed for 17 years.
Chinthaka participated in the 1993 Manila and 1995 Jakarta Asian Championships and was a member of the Gold Medal Team which won the 4X100m relay at the 1993 SAF Games held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He won a Bronze Medal in the 100m event at the same event. He also helped the Sri Lankan 4X100m Relay Team triumph at the same event and won the 100m with a time of 10.35s in 1998. Though could not bag medals he participated in the Asian Games in 1994, 1998 and in the Asian Championships held in 1993 and 1995. He also represented Sri Lanka at the World Athletics Championships in 1995, 1997 and 1999 and at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
Next sprinter that championed in track and field was Sugath Thilakarathne. In 1998 at the Bangkok Asian Games, he won Bronze in the 200m race and Gold in the 400m race. In the 1998 Asian Championships held in Fukuoka, Japan, he won Gold medal in the 400m race. As said earlier, in 1998 Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he won the Bronze medal in 400m race. In 2002 Asian Championships held in Colombo, he won Bronze for 400m. His best performance in a major global competition was in the 2001 World Championships where he reached the semi final. Thereafter, in 2002 Busan Asian Games, Rohan Pradeep Kumara, another sprinter, won Bronze for 400m.
Along with these male sprinters there were three female athletes who helped boost sprint events in Sri Lanka. They are Damayanthi Darsha, Sriyani Kulawansa and Susanthika Jayasinghe. It is not needed to talk about their well known achievements.
However, the most recent boost in track and field events started with two young athletes Shehan Ambepitiya and Himasha Eashan. Abeyptiya won three gold medals at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, and competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, making it to the semi-finals in the 100 and 200 metre events. He represented Sri Lanka at the 2009 World Athletics Championship, 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2010 South Asian Games. He was considered the fastest man in South Asia by winning the gold medal in the 100m in the South Asian Games 2010, Dhaka. Himasha Eashan held the South Asian and Sri Lankan records in the 100m sprint with the time of 10.26 seconds, until September 2020. The one who shattered his records was Abeykoon.
Life facts
Though there is a whole list of athletes in Sri Lanka, Yupun’s performances are prominent, only second to Susanthika Jayasinghe. So it is noteworthy to know about his sprinting path:
He was born on December 31, 1994 in Pannala, Kurunegala. In birth, he is Mudiyansalage Yupun Abeykoon, also referred as Yupun Priyadarshana. He became an Italian-based Sri Lankan track and field athlete after he was granted a scholarship in 2015 for further training in Italy. Before leaving Sri Lanka, he was attached to the Electronic and Mechanical Engineering Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army and always represented Army Sports Club at any available occasion. His scholarship was also granted by the Sri Lanka Army.
Yupun took his primary education from Pannala National School. He pursued his interest in track and field events while studying there. At the age of 16, he moved to the St. Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa with the recommendation of his personal coach.
According to the Wikipedia, he represented Sri Lanka at the 2013 South Asian Junior Athletics Championships which was held in Ranchi. In 2015, he competed in Military World Games representing Sri Lanka and took bronze medal in men’s 4×100m relay event. He also represented Sri Lanka at the 2019 South Asian Games and claimed the gold medal in the men’s 4 × 100 m relay event, setting a new national and South Asian Games record. There his teammates were Chanuka Sandeepa, Himasha Eashan and Vinoj Suranjaya. Yupune became the first Sri Lankan to compete at the Diamond League. In the same month he also qualified to represent Sri Lanka at the 2020 Summer Olympics which was his maiden Olympic appearance and competed in the men’s 100m event. He also became the first Sri Lankan to obtain direct qualification for the 100m event at the 2020 Summer Olympics after 25 years since Chintaka de Zoysa’s direct qualification at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Currently, he is at the 23rd position in world rankings for 100m. His points are 1274. The first place belongs to American sprinter Fred Kerley with 1479 points. Second, third and fourth places also belong to Americans – they are Trayvon Bromel (1442), Marvin Bracy (1419) and Christian Coleman (1384) respectively.
Difficult path
When considering all these facts, it is not difficult to figure out how Yupun Abeykoon achieved his targets. Definitely, it is not an overnight effort. He has a long and difficult path behind his success. First and foremost, he is a hard trainer with strong mindset. Like Susanthika Jayasinghe, he is also rooted in a rural environment, which is instrumental in success for a Sri Lankan athlete. And on the other hand, he didn’t have needy support from sports officials. After setting the Asian record with 9.96 secs in Switzerland,
Yupun revealed via a video clip that he didn’t get any support from Sri Lankan sports officials to achieve his feat. He spoke about them in disgust. This should be seriously taken into account by our responsible persons because without the necessary support we cannot expect successful results, especially from international sports arena. However, fortunately Yupun could achieve against all odds in Commonwealth Games. To end this note, we’ll mention his Twitter post after winning the Bronze:
