Confident Abeypitiya eyes good show in 2010 Asian Games

Pune: Having stunned Asian Championship gold medallist Zhang Peimeng to win the short dash at the first leg

of the Asian GP here, Shehan Abeypitiya now aims to do well in the forthcoming Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China from November 12-27. The 20-year-old Sri Lankan, coached by former Olympian Sunil Gunawardene, yesterday clinched the 100m gold in a photo-finish with Babakat Al Harti. Both of them clocked 10.47s. "It was a great win for me as the condition was not well after the rains and thundershowers. Moreover, I had an upset stomach but I did not let my confidence down. I was determined to do well in my favourite track," Abeypitiya said. Two years ago, Abeypitiya had achieved his personal best of 10.43s at the Commonwealth Youth Games here at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex and had made the meet memorable by clinching 200m and 4x100m gold medals. "That was the best year of my career. But this has been a good start to the season with a gold at the South Asian Games in Dhaka earlier," Abeypitiya said. "The Asian GPs will give me a nice experience competing with the Asian champion Peimeng among few others. I hope to do well in the Asian Games in China later this year as the Delhi Commonwealth Games will be a bit tougher.” "There will be participants from Jamaica making the dash one of the tough events. I hope to make the finals at least," he said before heading to Bangalore. The next two legs of the Asian GP will be held in Bangalore (June 5) and Chennai (June 9) respectively. PTI