NSSF Trap Open Championship from March 11
The National Shooting Sports Federation of Sri Lanka (NSSF) will conduct the NSSF Trap Open Championship at the Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo’s Shotgun Range in Payagala, Kalutara from March 11 to 14.
Under the leadership of Shirantha Peiris and purview of experts Mohan Gilbert as Match Director and Dinesh Lionel as Range Master, the Trap Open 2021 is NSSF’s second event of its calendar for 2021, which consists of 11 local meets.
“The NSSF Skeet Open was held earlier this month and it was a great success, given the fact that we were able to have events back after many months. Like the Skeet Open, we have many inquiries all are eager to take part, which will promise a good competition. The tournament will be conducted as per ISSF rules and regulations,” stated Pradeep Edirisinghe, the General Secretary of NSSF.
As conducted by the tournament regulations, participants will be allocated slots to shoot two rounds of 25 clays for a total of 50 clays on the first day.
“Moving forward, participants with Top 18 scores above 25 out of the first 50 clays will be detailed to shoot three more rounds of 25 clays to shoot a total of 125 clays. The top six shooters from the total of 125 clays will then move on to shoot the finals as per current ISSF format, where any tie breaks will also be settled. The scores from the first two rounds will be considered for the Team, Masters and Ladies categories,” Edirisinghe added.
The NSSF General Secretary stated that entries will be accepted with the signatures of shooters and club officials. Entries sent by participants should be sent to the NSSF only through the respective clubs in writing and with duly paid entry fees, the NSSF communiqué said.
“Clubs with preferences of when to shoot will be entertained by the NSSF, while dates and time slots for clubs will be finalised and circulated by March 7. Once all is finalised no changes will be made under any circumstances and clubs will be held responsible to ensure their competitors are present to shoot in the allocated squads,” Edirisinghe said.
The overall winner of the Individual Open event will receive a gold medal and a certificate, while the next top two finishers will receive silver and bronze medals respectively with certificates. The winners of the Team event will also receive the similar set of awards. In addition to the two main events Youth, Ladies and Masters categories are also slotted to take place depending on the number of entries received.
The three-day meet will be the second shooting event to be held in almost 10 months, since sports activities in Sri Lanka were forced to call off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the interest of NSSF in promoting shotgun sports, the local shooting sport governing body conducted the NSSF Skeet Open event, in which Prasad Madushanka and Sandakelum Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka Air Force and Shankar Dharmaratne of Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo finished top three.
Promoting of shotgun shooting discipline is being done simultaneously while popularising air rifle and air gun disciplines around the country, mainly among schools. The forthcoming Trap Open Championship is one of the six shotgun events planned for 2021.