Sports
Record breaking Yupun eyes Olympic qualifying standards
by Reemus Fernando
Italy based sprinter Yupun Abeykoon shattered the Sri Lanka National record and the South Asian men’s 100 metres record, offering glimpse of hope to end more than two decades of wait for a Sri Lankan champion to feature in an Olympics in the glamorous sprint event.
Former Pannala National School and St. Joseph Vaz College athlete clocked 10.16 seconds to break Himasha Eshan’s national record at a championship in Germany where he beat a host of German sprinters to win the 100 metres dash on Tuesday.
Congratulatory massages were a galore in the social media from midnight Tuesday as the track and field fraternity took stock on the capabilities of a 4×100 metres relay team at regional international level and Abeykoon’s own chances of qualifying for the quadrennial event.
In an interview with The Island Abeykoon thanked every one who had helped him reach where he is today and stressed that earning Olympic qualifying standards was his goal.
He said that he missed two months of training due to Covid-19 pandemic and commenced training in July. His two coaches Maurizio Raparelli and Claudio Licciardello had prepared plans to asses his strengths this season and he was reaching the peak.
He had been in Italy for five years now and had dedicated his time fully for training while his expenses had been bone by his parents.
“I would like to thank those who helped me on my way to achieving the national record. My coaches, my parents, Gen. Palitha Fernando, the president of Sri Lanka Athletics who had been in constant contact,” said Abeykoon.
“I was congratulated by the new Sports Minister in the morning. It is the first time that I received any communication from the Ministry. I hope country’s athletes will get the necessary support.”
“From now on I will target achieving Olympic qualifying standards,” said Abeykoon.
The 25-year-old had produced a notable feat days ago before smashing the national record established by Eshan last year.
With Abeykoon now inching closer to the tough Olympic qualifying mark, pressure will be on home based athletes like Eshan, Suranjaya and Yodasinghe to earn the rare berth.
“This pressure will help Sri Lanka improve standards in the 100 metres and we will be able to field formidable relay teams for international events,” Sri Lanka Athletics statistician Saman Kumara told The Island.
Incidentally, Abeykoon who was placed third behind Himasha Eshan and Vinoj Suranjaya at the National Championships in 2019 produced impressive performances ahead of the last South Asian Games. Sri Lanka Athletics had taken a policy decision to feature only the winners of the National Championships for individual events of the regional Games thus he could not featuring in the 100 metres. He was selected only as a member of the relay team for the South Asian Games where he anchored the team to gold.
A Sri Lankan 100 metres sprinter has not competed at an Olympics since the former champions, Asian Games medallist Sriyantha Dissanayake in Barcelona 1992 and Chinthaka de Zoysa in 1996 Atlanta Olympics represented the country. There had been a few national sprinters, who had given much hope early in their careers but the ever improving standards during the Bolt-dominated era made the country wait for more than quarter of a century. With the World Athletics raising the qualifying standards for the 100 metres dash to tough 10.05 seconds for the postponed Tokyo event, not many analysts could bet on a Sri Lankan sprinter for the coveted berth. But now with Abeykoon showing signs of vast improvement under a foreign coach, local authorities are left to keep their fingers crossed at the prospect of winning a 100 metres spot for Olympics.
Abeykoon who left for Italy after his schooling was coached by Chaminda Sampath Weerasinghe when he was at Pannala National School and St. Joseph Vaz College.
Sharjah, 2pm local time
Sri Lanka broke a 12 match losing streak against New Zealand by posting their first-ever T20I win against the opponents last year. In the third T20I in Colombo in July 2023, Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama helped crush New Zealand by 10 wickets to seal a historic win. While Sri Lanka will be looking for a consolation win, New Zealand will want to win big to strengthen their semi-final chances and boost their net run rate.
New Zealand squad:
Sophie Devine (capt), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Isabella Gaze, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Fran Jonas, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu
Sri Lanka squad:
Chamari Athapaththu (capt), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Vishmi Gunaratne, Kavisha Dilshari, Nilakshika Silva, Hasini Perera, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Sachini Nisansala, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Achini Kulasuriya, Inoka Ranaweera, Shashini Gimhani, Ama Kanchana, Sugandika Kumari
Tournament form guide:
After beating India comprehensively in their opener, New Zealand were handed a thrashing by defending champions Australia, crumbling to 88 all out in the 149 chase. Sri Lanka have lost all three matches they’ve played so far in the tournament, with the loss against India putting them out of semi-final contention.
Player to watch:
Legspinning-allrounder Amelia Kerr is one of the most reliable players for New Zealand. Against Australia, she waged a lone fight, taking four wickets and top-scoring with 29 in the chase. She took three wickets in five balls, with Australian batters struggling to read her googlies on the Sharjah pitch. She is once again expected to be key for New Zealand at the same venue against the shaky Sri Lankan batting order.
An Australian side struck by two injuries marched to a third massive win over a depleted Pakistan team, who slumped to the lowest total of the tournament so far. The result leaves Pakistan all but out of knockout contention while Australia are now almost certain to qualify into the final four.
Pakistan were without their captain Fatima Sana, after the passing of her father, and senior seamer Diana Baig, who has not recovered from the leg injury that saw her leave the field after bowling one ball in their tournament opener, and they missed the pair’s enthusiasm and experience. Only one of their batters, Aliya Riyaz scored more than 20, while there were five scores of single figures, two ducks and no partnerships worth more than 19.
All that happened after Australia lost their quickest bowler, Tayla Vlaeminck – who was playing her first T20 World Cup match since 2018 – before she had even bowled a ball Vlaemink dislocated her shoulder while tumbling at short third in the first over of the game trying to cut off a boundary, and there’s a cloud over her participation in the remainder of the tournament.
Her absence did not stop Australia from making run-scoring difficult for Pakistan. They found the other six bowlers tough to get away, only scored their first boundary of the innings in the ninth over, and hit just four fours in all. Australia had struck that many by the third over of their innings.Alyssa Healey was responsible for five of them and seemed set to take Australia to victory but retired hurt in the 10th over, as she hobbled to complete a second run off Aroob Shah. Healy gingerly headed to the dressing room with a foot injury.
Elysse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner polished off the total in 11 overs, which has taken Australia’s net run-rate up to 2.786, leaving them almost assured of a final-four place. Their last group match is against India in Sharjah on Sunday. Pakistan face New Zealand on Monday.
Schutt shoots to the top
Megan Schutt had an exceptional first two matches in Sharjah, where she established herself as the most economical bowler of the tournament so far, but was also able to take wickets on a surface that offered very little assistance. She’d have been delighted to get to more helpful conditions in Dubai and started with two testing overs as she shaped the ball away from Muneeba Ali and into Sidra Amin. Schutt was given a third over in the powerplay, where she played with her lengths, and eventually drew Sadaf Shamas into a drive and Healy was convinced Shamas had hit it. She reviewed, successfully, to give Schutt her 144th T20I wicket – which took her to the top of the overall T20I wicket takers list. Schutt overtook one of the players in the opposition, Nida Dar, who had to come to the crease with Shamas’ dismissal. Pakistan were 18 for 2 after five overs and 23 for 2 at the end of six.
Awesome Ash Gardner
Pakistan were starting to rebuild – but only slightly – between the 10th and 16th over courtesy a 19-run stand between Iram Javed and Aliya Riaz though they always looked close to being separated. Gardner should have had Javed stumped on 10 when she came down the track and swung at a length delivery but Healy missed the chance.
It didn’t take too long for Gardner to get her own back. In her next over, she tossed one up and Iram could not resist going for a big one. She skied it towards deep mid-wicket where Georgia Wareham was completely unfussed by the ring of fire and took a good catch. Gardner’s final over was the innings’ penultimate and Pakistan had to go in search of runs. Off the second ball, Healy made no mistake when Tuba Hassan came down the track, swung, missed and was stumped. Aroob Shah hit Gardner’s second-last ball to Beth Mooney at mid-wicket and Nashra Sandhu was given out lbw off the last ball which turned past her inside-edge to hit her on the pad. Gardner finished with 4 for 21, her second-best figures in T20Is.
Healy, Mooney race away
Australia started their reply with eight runs off their first 11 balls, none of them boundaries. That was all they needed to see and began to cash in thereafter. Healy drove Dar through the covers to register Australia’s first boundary and the fours kept coming. Beth Mooney hit three off Sadia Iqbal’s opening over, demonstrating her strength through the offside and Healy followed up with two more off Sadaf Shamas. Australia were 36 without loss in the fifth over when Mooney hit Iqbal to Aliya Riaz on the edge of the inner ring at mid-off but the horse had bolted. They won with 54 balls remaining, and their excellent NRR means they’d have to lose by 61 or more runs against India to be displaced from No. 1.
Brief scores:
Australia Women 83 for 1 in 11 overs (Alyssa Healy 37, Ellyse Perry 22*; Sadia Iqbql 1-17) beat Pakistan Women 82 in 19.5 overs (Aliya Riaz 26; Megan Schutt 1-07, Sophie Molineux 1-19, Ashleigh Gardner 4-21, Annabel Sutherland 2-15, Georgia Wareham 2-16) by nine wickets
Police SC and CH & FC will lock horns in the inaugural match of the Sri Lanka Premier League Hockey Championship at 6.00 pm at the Astroturf at Reid Avenue today.
The inaugural match will be preceded by an opening ceremony attended by all participating teams.
The tournament is organised to provide the experience of a top-level competition and thereby pave the way for the next generation to be competitive at international level.
Eight local teams are taking part in this inaugural premier league tournament. They are Sri Lanka Army SC, Navy SC, Air Force SC, Police SC, BRC, Old Senanayaka SC, CR & FC and CH & FC.
The league is introduced by the ‘Next Generation Development Hockey Society’ inclusive of players who have represented Sri Lanka National team, Sri Lanka Junior National team and Sri Lanka Schools teams.
The event is conducted under the auspices of the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation.
Nearly 200 local players who have national and international exposure are expected to join a number of foreign players of international repute. They are inclusive of players who have led their national teams.
All matches of the tournament will be played at the Astroturf at Reid Avenue.
The winners of the tournament will receive a handsome cash award. The best player of the tournament, highest goal scorer and the best goalkeeper of the tournament will also be rewarded.
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