Yupun advances to 100m semis in Birmingham

Yupun Abeykoon in the lead

By Susil Premalal 
- Reporting from Birmingham

Sri Lankan sprinter Yupun Abeykoon produced an excellent performance to win Heat 6 of the Men’s 100m event at the 22nd Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England yesterday.

The fastest athlete in the South Asian region returned a superb time of 10.06s and qualified to compete in today’s semi-finals, scheduled for 11.40 p.m. Sri Lanka time with the fastest time in the Heats. Third placed Godson Oke Oghenebrume (10.36s) of Nigeria and second placed Kion Benjamin (10.34s) of the Trinidad and Tobago were the real threats for Abeykoon in this heat, but he managed to storm past them to secure the top spot.

The top two athletes of each heat (10 heats) progressed to the semi-finals while the next seven semi-final spots were awarded to the fastest losers.Abeykoon said that now that he had cleared his initial hurdle, he would target a medal when he competes in the finals today.

“I am happy to reach the semi-finals and my next goal is to reach the final and win a medal for Sri Lanka,” Abeykoon revealed soon after the event. 

Meanwhile, the other Sri Lankan athlete to take part yesterday, Gayanthika Abeyratne clocked a Personal Best time of 2:01.20 secs in the Heats of the Women’s 800m but it was not enough to take her to the next round.Natoya Goule of Jamaica was placed first in the Heat, with a time of 1:58.39, ahead of Scotland’s Laura Muir, 1:58.84, and Alexandra Bell of England, who clocked 1:59.76.