Sri Lanka shooters win world championship
Sri Lanka won the overall championship at their maiden appearance in the 11th International Metallic Silhouette World Shooting Championship 2014 held at Udvicovich in the Czech Republic recently.
The fifteen member Sri Lanka contingent captained by Brig. D.S.D. Welikala comprised six shooters from the Sri Lanka Army, two each from the Special Task Force, Negombo Rifle Club, Nuwara Eliya Rifle Club and the Magnul Rifle Club. Sri Lanka won the world
The medal-winning shooters with the Commander of Sri Lanka Army
championship by bagging seventeen medals out of which Sri Lanka Army marksmen won eleven. Thirty countries took part in this world event and this is the first time a team from Sri Lanka took part in a mega rifle shooting event of this nature.
Talking about the game captain of the Sri Lanka team Brig. Welikala said that at this event the competitors had to shoot at shadows of various sizes of animals and birds. Distance to the target varied from size to size with a lesser distance for the smaller shadows and a bigger distance for bigger shadows. For shooting purposes big bore and small bore rifles were used.
This is the first time marksmen from the Sri Lanka Army won medals in a world event of rifle shooting and it is noteworthy that all the soldiers who won medals for the country were engaged in the war front to defeat terrorism.
After the war had ended Sri Lanka army has given their fullest cooperation and encouragement to their sportsmen and women who had shown remarkable performances in every discipline. By observing the standard of the Sri Lankan shooters the organisers had no hesitation in elevating the Lankans to the second segment of the competition.
Apart from the Army competitors the schoolboy shooting prodigy 16-year-old Yanitha De Silva from S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia became the most focused young player at the tournament when he won a gold and a silver while Janaka Wickremasurendra clinched a gold and Mohan Gilbert from Negombo Rifle Club too won a silver medal in their respective events. Sri Lanka Army shooters won eleven medals consisting of a gold, three silver medals and seven bronze medals in small and big bore rifle shooting events.
Army personnel who represented Sri Lanka Brig, Welikala, Maj. C.L. Ratnayake, S/Sgt. Lasantha G.K.H.M., Sgt. Piyaratne B.M., Cpl, Gunawardene R.P.W. and L/Cpl. Karunatilleke A.D.D were commended at a press briefing at his office by the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Lt. Gen. Daya Ratnayake for their immense contribution rendered in winning the championship and the glory they brought to Sri Lanka and the Army.
