Medal hope Abeykoon pulls out of Asian Games

South Asia’s fastest man Yupun Abeykoon has informed that he will not participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games as well, Sri Lanka Athletic (SLA) President Major General Palitha Fernando said.

The Hangzhou Asian Games athletic competition is scheduled to be held in China from September 29 to October 8. For that, 16 athletes including Abeykoon from Sri Lanka have been nominated.

Abeykoon has officially informed SLA that he has decided not to participate in the Asian Games after final examination and review of
his leg injury and the time available for the tournament.

This is the third consecutive time that Abeykoon has pulled out from representing Sri Lanka in international events in 2023.

Abeykoon did not participate in 25th Asian Senior Athletic Championship (Bangkok- July 2023) and IAAF World Athletic Championship (Budapest-August 2023) this year because
of injury.

He is a Bronze medallist at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where he finished the 100m in 10.06 seconds.

He has a personal best of 9.96 (Switzerland) in the 100m and 20.37 (Italy) in the 200m. “In the Hangzhou Asian Games athletics, we were expecting four or five medals, but with Abeykoon ‘s decision, our medal hopes have somehow fallen,” SLA President told “Daily Mirror.” (Susil Premalal)