National Skeet Shooting Championship from Oct 6
Alarge number of shooters representing seven clubs have confirmed participation for the upcoming National Skeet Shooting Championship, scheduled to be held at the National Shotgun Range in Payagala, Kalutara from October 6.
This three-day competition is one of the important shotgun events conducted by the National Shooting Sports Federation of Sri Lanka (NSSF), who is aiming to popularise this version of the sport besides their successes in air guns and air rifles.
Shooters representing Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo, the hosts or the owners of the country's only national level shotgun range, Negombo Rifle Shooting Club, Hill Country Sports Shooting Club, Wayamba Sports Shooting Club, Magnum Sports Shooting Club, Sri Lanka Air Force and Sri Lanka Police have confirmed participation, where the cynosure will be on two of the top contenders -- Dallas Martenstyn and Shirantha Peiris.
The NSSF in an official communiqué revealed that participants ranked in the Top 30 in the concluded NSSF Open Meet 2017, which was successfully conducted last month, will be slotted into details to their rankings to shoot on the second day of the Skeet Nationals.
The overall winner of the Individual Open event will receive a challenge trophy in addition to the gold medal and a certificate. The next top two finishers will receive silver and bronze medals respectively with certificates. The winners of the Team event will also receive the similar set of awards. In addition to the two main events Youth, Ladies and Masters categories are also slotted to take place depending on the number of entries received.
Mohan Gilbert, the NSSF Vice President for Shotguns, have been tasked with the position of Match Director while Jonathan Martenstyn, the NSSF Assistant Secretary for Shotguns, will be the Range Master of the event. The competition which begins on Friday will run up to next Sunday with matches set to be held from 9.00am to 4.00pm on all three days.
The NSSF in its annual calendar has included a total of eight meets with four each from shotgun and air rifle and air gun events. Following this event, the NSSF will conduct the National Trap Championship from October 26 to 29, where the organisers expect entries exceeding 150.