Yupun exits Olympics with a below-par performance
Jamaica sweeps the 100m women's race with Elaine Thomson-Herah defending the title witha record run
Sri Lanka sprinter Yupun Abeykoon said he would turn his attention towards the World Athletics Championship next year, after missing out on the second round of the Men’s 100m at Tokyo 2020 yesterday. Running in the third heat of the first round, Abeykoon was one of the slowest off the blocks, and against the most quality opposition he has ever run against, it proved too difficult for him to catch up to.
He drove hard through the final half of the race to finish with a time of 10.32secs, two-tenths of a second slower than the national record.
“I wanted to clock a personal best and unfortunately for me I could not do that. My goal now is to go and train for the World Championships next year,” Abeykoon said soon after the race.
Canada’s Andre DeGrasse clocked the fastest time of 9.91secs, with Lamont Jacobs of Italy, Fred Kerley of USA and Enoch Adegoke of Nigeria all clocking under 10 seconds.
Yupun Abeykoon had a disappointing end
In the night’s grand finale, Jamaica swept the Women’s 100m final, with defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah breaking Florence-Griffith Joyner’’s 33-year Olympic record with a time of 10.61 secs. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won silver with a time of 10.74secs while Shericka Jackson took bronze with a personal best time of 10.76 secs.
Fraser-Pryce got the better start, leading for the first 40 metres, before Thompson-Herah kicked into gear to beat her compatriot and retain her title.
Poland meanwhile won the first ever Olympic Gold in the 4x400m Mixed Relay, holding off the Dominican Republic and United States. Daniel Stahl of Sweden, the 2019 World Champion in the Men’s Discus, threw for a distance of 68.9 metres to win Olympic Gold, in the 1000th final of the modern Olympic era.
His compatriot Simon Pettersson won silver, throwing 67.39 metres, with Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger won bronze.