Sri Lanka’s sprint ace Yupun Abeykoon will feature in the Men’s 100m heats at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan this evening.
South Asia’s fastest man Abeykoon will be running in Heat 3 of the 100m dash which will begin at 4.31pm.
He will be running in lane five, outside of Italy’s Marcell Jacobs who is the favourite to win the heat. Jacobs has a personal best of 9.95s in 100m.
The blue ribbon event of the Olympic Games will draw huge interests from across the globe.
American Trayvon Bromell is the favourite to win the gold medal in the event in Tokyo.
25-year-old Bromell, ran an impressive 9.77s in June.
Yupun Abeykoon meanwhile, broke his own South Asian and a National Men’s 100m record with a timing of 10.15 seconds at a meeting in Italy earlier this year.
He is 54th in the Men’s Overall Ranking in the 100m.
The qualification standard for the Tokyo Olympics is set at 10.05sec or the first 56 rankings on the World Athletics list.
He is also the first Sri Lankan sprinter since 1996 to compete in the men’s 100m at an Olympic Games.
26-year old Abeykoon anchored the Sri Lanka 4x100m Relay team to win the gold medal at the South Asian Games in 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
