Suranga and Ruwini claim top honours
Renowned shooters Suranga Fernando and Ruwini Abeymanne pocketed three top awards at the National Shooting Championships 2017 worked off at the Naval Shooting Range in Welisara recently.
Olympian Shooter Abeymanne, representing Cambrian Shooting Club, won the Women’s 10m Air Pistol and the 25m Sport Pistol events while claiming the mixed 10m Air Pistol event partnering with teammate 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.
Abeymanne was closely followed by Sri Lanka Police Shooter E. M. Pabawathi, who missed out the 10m Air Pistol top spot by two points while losing the 25m Air Pistol top position by a bigger margin of 20 points.
Fernando meanwhile claimed wins in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol and in the 50m Free Pistol events in addition to the mixed 10m Air Pistol event with Abeymanne.
Representing Magnum 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.
On both occasions he had a close rivalry in Gamini Walgama of Sri Lanka Police, who was placed second twice.
But Walgama had the consolation of gaining sweet revenge on Fernando in the Men’s 25m Standard Pistol event.
However, the cynosure of all eyes during the eight-day long event was on the shooters representing Sri Lanka Schools who were on par with the much experienced shooters.
Dominating the Youth and Junior categories by winning three of its four events, was Akila Sithumina, Natasha Hendalage and Amandika Weerasinghe who claimed the Men’s 10m Air Pistol, Women’s 10m Air Pistol and the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event respectively.
The school shooters also claimed three of the second and third positions while four shooters, two each in the Men’s and Women’s category impressed in the main draw.
Vidura Peiris and Sashika Perera, both competed in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle event and finished second and third respectively while W. A. Y. C. Dharmadasa topped the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event with Amandika Amarasinghe finishing at second.
“This is a good sign for the future of shooting sports in Sri Lanka. The shooters from schools have impressed this time around at the Nationals than the recent years. It will be a very good foundation in Sri Lanka’s quest for international medals, as we can be rest assure with the talent that the country has got,” stated Pradeep Edirisinghe, the General Secretary of the National Shooting Sports Federation (NSSF) of Sri Lanka.
According to the NSSF apart from the Point 22 Rifle events had to be called off on the request of the three armed forces - Army, Navy and Air Force - due to shortage of ammunition.
A total of 13 events were held under Rifle and Pistol categories of Junior and Youth, Men’s Open and Women’s Open.
Even with the absence of three important teams, the NSSF National Shooting Championship 2017 had over 100 high profile shooters from clubs and schools.