Abeymanne wins but the younger brood impresses

Young and aspiring shooters from schools impressed at the NSSF National Shooting Championship 2017 held at the Naval Shooting Range in Welisara. While renowned shooters Suranga Fernando and Ruwini Abeymanne pocketed three top categories, the young school-goers proved their might by claiming 15 positions in the top three including wins under four categories.

Olympian shooter Abeymanne, representing Cambrian Shooting Club, won the Women's 10M Air Pistol and 25M Sport Pistol events while claiming the Mixed 10M Air Pistol event partnering with team mate Suranga Fernando. Abeymanne accumulated 368 points in the 10M Air Pistol event while in the 25M Air Pistol event she plucked-in 548 points to claim the top spot.

Fernando, meanwhile claimed wins in the Men's 10M Air Pistol and 50M Free Pistol events in addition to the Mixed 10M Air Pistol event with Abeymanne. Representing Cambrian Shooting Club, Fernando won the Men's 10M Air Pistol event with 576 points, while representing Cambrian SC, he won the 50M Free Pistol event with 521 points.

However, the cynosure eight-day long event were the shooters representing Sri Lanka Schools, who were on par with the much experienced shooters. While dominating the Youth and Junior category by winning three of its four events, as Akila Sithumina, Natasha Hendalage and Amandika Weerasinghe claimed the Men's 10M Air Pistol, Women's 10M Air Pistol and Women's 10M Air Rifle respectively.