Born To Race
Yupun Abeykoon shows off his CWG bronze medal with coach Claudio Licciardello
As Yupun Abeykoon lined up for the 100m final of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, few would’ve expected what came next. Having never before competed in a major final and just managing to scrape through by clocking 10.19secs, there was little hope of a podium finish.
But Yupun turned on the afterburners to dip past the line with a time of 10.14secs, claiming the bronze. It was his first medal in a major multi-disciplinary sporting event. Yupun competed at the 2021 Olympics but only managed sixth place in the heats, crashing out of the Olympics after a 10.32secs run.
Since then, he put in a great deal of work to make a name for himself as a leading sprinter. His success isn’t accidental. It’s the result of three years of commitment, discipline, hard work and sacrifice. His coach Claudio Licciardello sums up Yupun as a “perfect professionalist” who is “born to race”.
“He is passionate,” said Licciardello, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times from Italy.
“It’s easy to work with someone like him because he gives me lots of feedback. He is a perfect professionalist.”
Licciardello met Yupun in 2019. A week later, he was able to understand what the then 24-year-old could do. Since leaving to Italy in 2015, Yupun did not have a great run as he was battling injuries. He was about to give up athletics before he was introduced to the former Olympian Liccardello by Maurizio Raparelli, his first coach and mentor in Italy.
“I can remember when he first came to me three years ago. I saw something special in him. He had the strength and the skills but lacked power. I told him to focus on his future as his future could be bright,” Liccardello said.
Yupun had a personal best of 10.31secs in 2018 and his best time in 2019 was 10.44secs. However, after coming under Liccardello he started producing better timings. He clocked 10.16secs in 2020 to own the South Asian record.
“So we put lot of work behind the scene. A lot of work done by a group of people who are trying to do something special for the athlete. We are working in a team with a physiotherapist, the nutritionalist, a mental coach and strength and conditioning coach. We, as a team, decide the right way and the best way that work for Yupun. So, I am proud of what we have done with him but curious about what we could do in the future,’ the coach said.
Licciardello and his team have spent time, evaluating Yupun–what kind of work he has put in and what more needs to be done to transform him into a champion runner. Accordingly, Licciardello and his team studied his technique, strengths, power and other factors to design the best possible programme to suit Yupun.
“In fact, the first race together did not go as expected in 2019. But then, we prepared step by step. The first season he was running at 10.15secs and later he moved to 10.13secs with a peak consistency. So the third year it was a big jump to 9.96secs,” Liccardello said.
“During the three years I have spent with him, I knew he is capable of doing sub 10secs, but to do that is not simple. You need to have the right season to that and this season was so important for the Commonwealth Games,” he pointed out.
Yupun became the first South Asian to run sub 10-seconds when he clocked 9.96secs in Switzerland in the lead up to the World Athletics Championship last month. The meet in Switzerland was, however, not planned, according to the coach. The initial idea was for Yupun to fly directly to World Championships after Stockholm but this was changed when Licciardello saw something
special in Yupun.
“On our last training session I saw he was in top shape, something that I never seen before that day. So I said to go to Switzerland because I was sure that he could do something special. And later we can go to the World Championship with our top mentality. You know, if you do something special, you can go to the big event, forgetting all the tension that can come from a big race,” he related.
As anticipated, Yupun took a mighty leap in his career, clocking under 10secs, a feat that has been elusive for a South Asian for decades. But he failed to live up to his billings when he clocked 10.19secs to crash out of the IAAF World Athletic Championship.
Licciardello says Yupun is one of the best fly runners in the world. Fly run is the central phase of the 100m, from 35-40m to the end of the race where athletes get into the best gear.
“I told him to make a big fly run because he has the build and he did the sub 10secs through a big, big fly run. Of course, we obviously focus on the acceleration too, and we are just continuously training to improve the acceleration, because I think it’s something like 40 percent of the 100 metres. But, Yupun, is one of the best in the world in fly run,” he explained.
This, Licciardello thinks, will make Yupun a great 200m runner, although the athlete’s focus has been the short sprint.
“I think the future could be in 200m too. We should not forget he did 20.37secs this year May. I think Yupun has a big chance to stay close to 20.00secs and that could be another big achievement,” he said.
Liccardello admitted that even though Yupun qualified to run at the Tokyo Olympics last year, he was not ready for such a big competition at the time.
“It was really too much,” he maintained.
Yupun managed a sixth place finished in the heats, clocking 10.32secs that did not secure him a semi-final spot in his maiden global event.
“He was not ready to compete at the top level then but now he is ready. He is ready because, he had gained lots of experience last year. But this year he was ready to do something special and he did it”.
Yupun is expected to run in the Diamond League final next month but his biggest challenge will be to fly the lion flag high at next year’s Asian Games and Asian Championship and Liccardello concedes it will be tough for his charge.
“It will not be easy,” he admitted.
“There are lots of other big competitions including World Championship in Budapest coming up. Then there’s Asian Games and Asian Championship. We need to plan it very well. In fact, I asked help from the Sri Lanka officials to help Yupun do his best. This means Yupun should be able to plan wherever he needs to do his best because you know, when you run in 10.20secs, it’s difficult to improve, but it’s possible when you run in 9.9secs. If you want to improve, you need the help of an institution. So we have asked them for help. Obviously I’m not talking just about economic part. This will help him get an Asian Games medal and may be reach the World Championships final,” he asserted.