Shooters can freely aim now
NSSF and Ministry of Sports officials at the signing of the agreement
An unyielding effort which consumed years of hard work and commitment finally have provided the administration of the National Shooting Sport Federation of Sri Lanka (NSSF) a sense of achievement, when the Ministry of Sports assured its willingness to build a much needed shooting range. The intended ‘national shooting range’, which will become the nerve centre for national and aspiring shooters, will be ideally located at Kohuwela.
The new national range, which will be the core site for shooters of all walks of life, will include 10 fully functional air pistol and air rifle lanes with manual-target facilities. But the feature of this upcoming range will be its facilities.
“The range will have air conditioning, lighting and even changing rooms and rest rooms for shooters. This is an overdue yet much looked-forward project, not only to NSSF, but the whole fraternity of shooters in Sri Lanka specially the youth and juniors,” stated Pradeep Edirisinghe, the General Secretary of NSSF.
The project is mainly initiated as a High Performance Centre (HPC), in addition to a competition and training venue and will have easy access to all shooters affiliated to NSSF. The main disciplines focused through this will be 10-metre Air Rifle and 10-metre Air Pistol. The prolific project is a brainchild of Shirantha Peries, the President of NSSF, who had made all possible attempts to secure a National Shooting Range, a compulsory requirement, for a sport that has potential in winning medals and accolades at international level, including the Commonwealth Games and Olympics.
“In the past few years we have managed to add value, standard and achieve progress with regard to shooting sport disciplines that come within the purview of the NSSF. But NSSF too has its restrictions when it comes to funds and expenditure, as we do not possess a mass asset. It’s a known fact that we tried our best to secure a national range during the past few years, despite other odds coming ahead of us. This is a breakthrough we have been waiting to happen and we are indebted to the minister of sports and the higher authorities who govern sports in the country, for making it possible,” stated Shirantha Peries, the President of NSSF.
The signing of an agreement took place last week by the Director General of Sports for the Ministry of Sports, Amal Edirisuriya and Peries, as the President of NSSF. The agreement promises brighter days for shooting sports in Sri Lanka as Peries and his team had anticipated for many years, and a sign of relief for all the hard work placed in giving priority to the development of the sport, its athletes, coaches and other officials.
This will also mark as a first in the annals of NSSF with regard to a national range accessible to all shooters specially the youth and juniors, with Sri Lanka’s topmost air rifle and air pistol shooting and training facility being located inside the Naval base in Welisara, where access is highly restricted and expensive.
The Ministry of Sports will help NSSF operate the range as a High Performance Centre and will also provide the services of an expert foreign coach, who not only will sharpen the skills of national and aspiring shooters, but also of local coaches.
The project of the building and its other facilities will commence soon after the country returns to its normalcy from the ongoing lockdown situation. Funds will be released by the Ministry of Sports, after the NSSF provides the documented requirements according to the phases of the project.
The Minister of Sports inspecting the existing shooting range in Kohuwala
The new High Performance Centre and National Shooting Range facility will be erected adjoining the existing 4-lane electronic shooting facility, which the NSSF set up during early 2019 to provide a training facility meeting international standards to its national shooters.
“That will remain as an elite centre for national shooters who are contenders at international meets. The upcoming facility will be a base for those who are aspirant of becoming international shooters. Once they reach the required standards, they can move from that range to the other, represent Sri Lanka and win medals for the country,” elated by the new development, Edirisinghe added.
The projects comes as part of High Performance Sports Development Programme initiated by the Ministry of Sports and the National Sports Council. The singing of agreement took place in the presence of Minister of Sports, Hon. Namal Rajapaksa, Coordinating Secretary to the Minister of Sports, Ronnie Ibrahim and National Sports Council Member Julian Bolling and other NSSF officials.