Sri Lankans complete skeet event positively
Shankar Dharmaratne in action yesterday
Top three clay target shooters of NSSF Skeet Open 2021 Championship Prasad Madushanka, Sandakelum Ranasinghe and Shankar Dharmaratne, who qualified to represent Sri Lanka at the inaugural Online Asian Shooting Championship, ended the two-day competition at the Payagala Shotgun Range yesterday, optimistically though the final standings are yet to be released.
The three skeet shooters completed the first round on Friday and yesterday, all three have shown great improvement, which could result in at least one of them reaching among the top finishers among hundreds of other shooters from 22 Asian nations. The official results are yet to be released by the organisers — the Kuwait Shooting Sport Federation — who monitored the regional event with real time updates from the 22 participating countries.
“We began shooting starting from 10.00am on both days, as instructed by the Asian Shooting Sport Federation at the Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo’s shotgun range facility in Payagala. We, as the NSSF must take the responsibility for an honest report and these results are totally based on mutual understanding,” Pradeep Edirisinghe, the general secretary of National Shooting Sport Federation (NSSF) of Sri Lanka, stated.
Though three skeet shooters qualified from the shotgun events, Sri Lanka could not make progress in the 10m Air Rifle and 10m Air Pistol events, none of the local shooters managed to reach the minimum qualifying standards set by the organisers in Kuwait. Local shooters took part in training the newly setup electronic target, at a provisional facility located on a property in Kohuwala own by the NSSF president Shirantha Peries, prior to taking part in a qualifier.
Including Sri Lanka, a total of 22 countries are competing in the inaugural Asian Online Shooting Championship. Each country had to provide their own judges and referees who holds ISSF International Qualification. In Sri Lanka Lt. Col. Thilak Dissanayake, Russell Grey and Jagath Ranasinghe are acting as referees and judges.
“The NSSF is grateful for the National Selection Committee for the assistance and approval they gave us to have our shooters in action at the inaugural Asian Online competition. It was a great effort made by all, officials and athletes, that gave us this opportunity to represent the country at a regional event despite the restrictions due to the pandemic,” Edirisinghe added.
From left: Dharmaratne, Madushanka and Ranasinghe
The top three finishers of the NSSF Skeet Open 2021, which concluded last weekend, automatically qualified for the regional event, which concluded yesterday. Prasad Madushanka from Sri Lanka Air Force emerged the champion in the Open Category, securing the gold medal while his team mate Sandakelum Ranasinghe was placed second, and clinched the silver medal. Shankar Dharmaratne of Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo (CTSCC) finished third with the bronze medal.
Besides the top three finishers, Sanjeev de Silva and Shehan Patterson qualified for the final round representing CTSCC, while Senerath Menikdiwela and Rangala Wimalaratne qualified for Hill Country Shooting Sport Club. Representing Negombo Rifle Club, Dallas Martenstyn reached the top 10, alongside Nalinda Ranasinghe of Wayamba SSC and K.A.D.S. Bandara of Air Force.
While Madushanka, Ranasinghe and Dharmaratne finished as the best three in the Open, Dallas Mastenstyn emerged the champion of the Master’s Category. The Team Category was won by Sri Lanka Air Force, represented by Madushanka, Ranasinghe and Bandara.