Sri Lanka’s sprint superstar Yupun Abeykoon has received the official call-up for the Men’s 100m Diamond League Final, which is set to be held on the 8th and 9th of September 2022 in Zurich.
Abeykoon, who won a Commonwealth Bronze Medal just last month, will be up against some serious heat in the Final Diamond League race of the season, with the likes of Yohan Blake, Trayvon Bromell, Andre de Grasse and Akani Simbine set to feature.
Start List
In September last year, Abeykoon became the first Sri Lankan to compete in a Diamond League race, when he ran the 100m in Zurich – he finished 9th with a time of 10.25s. Since then, he has competed in 2 more Diamond League races earlier this season, in Oslo and Stockholm, where he finished 5th and 4th respectively.
However, this race is particularly significant as only the best performing athletes at Diamond League races for the season are invited to compete in the Final race of the series.
This is what Abeykoon had to say on his Facebook profile about the race:
“When this year started, I said to my coach, ‘Coach, I want to run the Diamond League finals this year. I want to stand on that track.’ There was a reason for that – the Diamond League Final is a championship where the tickets are sold out a month before the meet. I wanted to experience the feeling of being one of the best athletes in the world in the midst of 22,000 spectators, while millions watched the race live once again.
Dedicated to one goal for years, I improved my skills year after year, trained 6 days a week in the freezing cold and scorching heat (some days in the morning and evening), suffered for hours on the ground, in the gym, even vomited hard during some training sessions. After all that hard work, just being able to be among the best 8 athletes among thousands of athletes in the world, makes my soul happy.”
The Wanda Diamond League rules
The Wanda Diamond League encompasses 32 Diamond Disciplines, following a championship style model. Athletes earn points at the 13 series meetings to qualify for the final of their discipline.
At each of the 13 series meetings, Athletes are awarded 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 points for ranking 1st to 8th respectively. The top 6 in the field events, top eight for 100m-800m and the top 10 for 1500m and long disctances will qualify for the Final. In case of a tie, the best legal performance of the qualification phase wins.
The Final 3 format, which is trialled throughout the season in horizontal and technical disciplines, will not be used in the Wanda Diamond League Final.
The winner of each Diamond Discipline at the Final will become “Diamond League Champion” and be awarded a Diamond Trophy, USD 30’000 prize money and a wild card for the World Athletics Championships (certain conditions apply).
