Did rifle shooting pass away with Daya Rajasingha?
View(s):By Bandula Molligoda
A once popular sport in the country, rifle shooting seems to have passed away with the death of veteran rifle shooter and administrator Lieutenant Colonel Daya Rajasingha.
There is no doubting the fact that rifle shooting was one of the country’s established sports a few years ago and produced several skilled shooters who left their mark both domestically and internationally.
In fact Sri Lanka won a number of gold medals in rifle shooting in the late 80’s and early 90’s and the sport was on par with some of the country’s other more established sports like athletics and swimming.
At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Sri Lanka was able to win two golds, one silver and one bronze medal in rifle shooting when most other sports had disappointed.
This was the golden era of rifle shooting in Sri Lanka with Pushpamali Ramanayake, Mali Wickremasinghe (both gold medalists), Lucky Rajasinghe (silver) and Chandrasiri (silver) in tremendous form.
These rifle shooters kept the Sri Lankan flag flying high at almost every meet and always came out with a splendid performance in all major tournaments including the Olympic, Commonwealth, Asian and SAF Games. This was a creditable achievement considering that the country had limited facilities, with only three shooting ranges located in Panagoda, Diyatalawa and Welisara.
However the standard of this sport has now dropped so alarmingly that only one meet record was established during the recently concluded national rifle shooting championships.The Sunday Times interviewed some former stalwarts of the sport who agreed that the main cause for this decline was because the country did not have a clear plan for it.
It was due to the clear vision, commitment and organizing skills of people of the caliber of Daya Rajasingha, Lucky Rajasinghe, Buddhi Siriwardena, Saal Chitty, Sri Kumaranayagam, Ravi Jayawardena, Elmo Rodrigo, Fred Young and Rohana Nanayakkara that Sri Lanka was able to dominate rifle shooting in the 90’s. In fact the late Daya Rajasinghe played a major role in the promotion of rifle shooting in the country with his selfless attitude helping to produce great results at international events.He was a person who opened up the sport to the common man, allowing all citizens in the country to participate in rifle shooting.
Sri Lanka’s rankings have now dropped to number four at the SAF level, behind Bangladesh and very soon they will be ousted by the
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| Daya Rajasingha, Pushpamali Ramanayake, Mali Wickremasinghe gold medalists. Extreme right: Pushpamali Ramanayake | ||
Maldives, who are currently training at the Sri Lanka Army marksman school.
India is presently performing well in rifle shooting mainly due to their well executed long term plan which was also the brainchild of the late Daya Nadarajasingha and other officials.
It was India’s national coach, Professor Sunnie Thomas, who master minded this plan after having studied the performances and the administration of the Sri Lankan Rifle Shooting Association.
As a result India built up their infrastructure and began to take to the game in a big way, with a large number of national cadets deciding to participate in their domestic tournaments.The Indians then began to produce some fantastic results in the coming years with Bindra winning the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games while the team bagged three medals at the 2012 London Olympics. India has improved so much in this sport that they have now decided to field a second string team for the South Asian Games and other regional sporting events.
It is high time that Sri Lanka should revive this sport and bring back their lost glory with a clear vision while getting the advice of former experts and establishing a national policy.
The view of some of the former greats is that Sri Lanka could easily setup shooting ranges throughout the country while exploring the three armed forces for talent. They also felt that this target could be achieved with a sum of Rs. one million for a 10-meter shooting range with five additional rifles and pellets and with no maintenance cost. They added that the authorities should also get the backing of the Sports Ministry and introduce the sport to schools which will give them a chance of winning a medal in 2017. They should also get the services of a foreign coach to train coaches and shooters throughout the country.
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