Economy crisis hit shooting sport hard
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The National Shooting Sport Federation of Sri Lanka (NSSF), one of the key sport entities that have produced Olympians and Commonwealth Games medialists, have been forced to withhold its intended calendar events. According to sources, the main reason is the unavailability of ammunition, pellets and other important material that goes along with the medal prospective, yet fairly expensive sport.
Rated as one of the best sports to increase the level of focus and mindset, with its ability to improve a youngster to a better, psychologically and physically mindful individual, the current economic drought and restrictions that followed, have caused the sudden silence of its guns.
A sport that currently has a massive following and participation, mainly among schools and school children, NSSF was once forced to forego its events, including the Nationals and Open events in Air Rifle, Air Pistol and Shotgun, for nearly two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This time the country’s crippling economy, caused by inflation, has forced many sports to corner itself from holding events and even sending its national teams and representatives to international events. Shooting sport is one of them.
Unlike other sports, such as athletics, hockey, basketball and volleyball, shooting sport has a procedurally heavy process which includes importing ammunition and pellets and other related materials, as much of them are not locally manufactured.
According to sources, the NSSF, functioning sans sponsors and running with contributions from individual and collective well-wishers, have placed minimum orders to carry on with its remainder events, but since the banks have run out of US dollars, the placements are at a standstill. To see a sport that was developed from scratch to its present glory, especially among schoolchildren since the takeover of the administration by the incumbent President Shirantha Peries and its administrators, suffer, has placed not only the NSSF hierarchy, but the shooters of different age levels, in disarray.
But as it is learnt, NSSF is keen to bounce back and come back to action by the end of June, aiming to give its athletes the necessary exposure with many international events upcoming. Even if the NSSF holds any event, with limited resources, it will still fail to recognise the top achievers, as the economy collapse has caused blackouts into many industries including logistics, printing and other needed areas to have complete competition, other than the ammunitions, pellets and targets.