For the first time in the History of Diamond League and Sri Lankan sports, a ‘Mudiyanselage’ will be running in the finals held in Zurich. Yupun Priyadarshana Abeykoon became the first Sri Lankan to participate in the Diamond League and will be running in the finals on the 9th of September.
Weltklasse Zurich (World Class Zurich) is an invitation only Track and Field event held annually in Zurich, Switzerland and serves as the final alongside with Memorial Van Damme. Though the Diamond League started in 2010 and has now being renamed as Wanda Diamond League, Weltklasse Zurich was first held in 1928.
Yupun Abeykoon came 4th place with a timing of 10.16s in the Florence leg, marginally losing the 3rd place by a thousandth of a second. Based on the available runners and overall points, he qualifies to the finals and this is an important milestone for him, as well as for the history of Sri Lankan athletics.
With the determination of not making the same mistake at the Olympics, Yupun may likely repeat his first leg success or possibly, better his personal best for his has done that 5 times this season. He was the first male 100m sprinter for Sri Lanka since Chinthaka De Zoysa to represent the country at the Olympics since 1996 and is now the first Sri Lankan to run in a Diamond League finals. Despite being the fastest in South Asia, he will be facing a lot of competition as this is the finals, especially in the likes of De Grasse and Kerley.
The final list is as follows.
100M FINAL (ZURICH) – THURSDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER (20.38 LOCAL TIME)
Lane 1 – Ronnie BAKER (USA)
Lane 2 – Trayvon BROMELL (USA)
Lane 3 – Andre DE GRASSE (CAN)
Lane 4 – Fred KERLEY (USA)
Lane 5 – MUDIYANSELAGE Yupun Abeykoon (SRI)
Lane 6 – Michael RODGERS (USA)
Lane 7 – Akani SIMBINE (RSA)
Lane 8 – Silvan WICKI (SUI)
An old social media post dating back in 2016, when Yupun arrived to Italy for the first time, mentioned that his dream is to run in the Diamond League and now, it is not a dream anymore. Regardless of the final outcome, the writer wishes the best of luck to Yupun for this event as all the hard work he put in got him there!
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