Sri Lankan 100m finalist seeking scholarship!

It took 18-year-old Shehan Abeypitiyage of Sri Lanka a good 10 minutes and a hint from an IAAF official to understand that he had just written a page of his country’s athletics history, albeit its World Junior history.

Indeed, Sri Lanka has had its share of medals at Olympic Games and World Championships but never had a representative of this Asian island managed to qualify for a final at the IAAF World Junior Championships.

With his semi final run of 10.59, Abeypitiyage grabbed the last qualifying place for tomorrow’s 100m final, a feat which has made him, his mother and his country very proud.

Is it true?

“Really? I’m in the final? You’re not telling me a lie?” was Abeypitiyage’s first reaction when told that his fourth place would be good enough to get through to the next round. “Let me wait for the official results on the screen just to be sure,” the Colombo-native said cautiously.

Read more,
http://www.iaaf.org/WJC08/news/kind=100/newsid=45832.html
Photo,
http://www.iaaf.org/mm/photo/competitions/competition/81859435_3694_full-prt.jpg
Profile of Shehan Abeypitiyage,
http://www.theworlds.org/athletes/biographies/country=SRI/athcode=236408/index.html