Yupun Abeykoon the South Asian fastest athlete will emerge as one of the world’s top athletes very soon and we have to give our maximum support to him said Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe.
Yupun Abeykoon who came back home for a short holiday met the Sports Minister at the Sports Ministry on Wednesday while Sri Lanka Athletic President Major General Palitha Fernando, Its Secretary Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva, Ministers Chief Consultant Sudath Chandrasekara and National Sports Council Chairman Arjuna Ranathunga were present on the occasion.
Yupun has submitted the four-year plan to the Sports Minister to get assistance from the Ministry. Sports Minister has ordered to take quick action for this four-year plan while financial assistance started with the donation from Sri Lanka Cricket which.
handed over 50,000 US dollars each for two years and this donation to the Sports Fund was handed over by Sri Lanka Cricket President Shammi Silva recently at the Sports Ministry.
The Secretary of the Sports Ministry Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva said the idea is to increase financial assistance after considering Yupun Abeykoon’s performance. Yupun has made good progress in the sprint events 100m and 200m. If Yupun does well at the Asian Games or Asian Athletic Championship next year we will give more financial assistance. The Sports Minister is keen to send more athletes to Italy for higher-level training.
We wanted to discuss with National Sports Council headed by Arjuna Ranathunga and work closely to help from overseas countries as sending an athlete to a foreign country is very costly said, Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva.
Yupun said Italy training has more facilities compared to Sri Lanka and Sports Minister saw my facilities in Italy during his short visit to Italy last month. I requested Sports Minister to improve facilities for the local athletes. I knew how much effort is needed to increase my personal time and most of them couldn’t understand our commitment to this sport.
I started my athletics career as a triple jumper at Pannala National school and then moved to sprint events 100m, and 200m. I was able to set up the 2013 100m National school 100m record. When I was at the 17-18 period I had a time of 10.78 seconds from 100m while I had to wait three years to improve that time. From 11.02 seconds to 10.05 seconds I had to wait three years then from 10.5 to 10.1 seconds I had to wait five years and it was very hard to improve ten seconds as a sprinter and my dedication was very high.
Today I am a professional athlete and have limited free time and always focused on 100 m event with my coach and his staff. No time to give media interviews and especially I always concentrate to go forward but it’s step by step and my task is to go forward. I never think of retirement and still maintain my present performances and fitness said Yupun. During this short visit, Abeykoon is ready to train at the Sugathadasa Stadium and already goes to the gymnasium to maintain his fitness.
SLA Chief Major General Palitha Fernando said Yupun Abeykoon gave the Commonwealth Games silver medal from 100m and this was after 24 years. we are proud of him and hope for more achievements in the future. We have a very busy schedule next year as Asian Games, Asian Championships and World Championships are the key events we have talented athletes Gayanthikka Abeyratne, Nilani Ratnayake, Nimali Liyanarachchi and there are many promising athletes like Tharushi Karunaratne who are in good form and hope for more medals from Athletics added SLA Chief.
