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STEADY AIM. (From left) Dilhara Salgado, Shashikala Kumarasinghe, Nipun Seneviratne,
Samantha Rajapaksa and Maj. Jagath Weeratunga - Pix by Sanka Vidanagama. |
There were shades of Sherwood Forest and glimpses of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men at the specious lawns of the BMICH. The Sri Lanka Archery team led by Samantha Rajapaksa were preparing themselves for the SAF Games to be held in Bangladesh starting January 29.
There was no Lincoln green attire as the Merrie Men used to wear during the days of yore. The Sri Lankan team wore grey outfits with the words Sri Lanka Archery Team printed on the back of their shirts.
Samantha Rajapaksa, the skipper of the Sri Lanka Archery team, explained that the equipment used was the Olympic Compound bow, the modern version of the long bow used by Robin Hood and his men. The Olympic bow is very sophisticated. It has a sight and the bow string is made of steel wire capable of shooting the arrow to a great distance. This piece of weaponry is priced at Rs. 150,000 and maybe more. The quiver (case to store the arrows) is worn at the hip instead of the back. The archers cut dashing figures and the two girl archers present on the occasion - Dilhara Salgado and Sashikala Kumarasinghe - were the replicas of dashing modern day Maid Marians.
The bowstring cord is fast light and the arrows are made of aluminium, carbon, fiberglass or wood.
Olympic Archery competitions and all international tournaments are held under the rules of the International Archery Federation.
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These rules call for men to shoot rounds of 36 arrows at targets to distances of 98, 77, 55 and 33 yards (90, 70, 50 and 30 meters). Women shoot rounds of 36 arrows at 77, 66, 55 and 33 yards (70, 60, 50 and 30 meters). They shoot at targets 48 inches (122 centimeters) in diameter. The 55 and 33 yard rounds use targets of 31 inches (80 cm) in diameter.
Compound bows came into use during the 1970’s and gained wide popularity and are easy to draw.
I spoke to the archers present at the BMICH lawn. There were six in all (two girls and four men).I was told that some members could not be present.
Samantha Rajapaksa, an Old Boy of Ananda College Colombo, bears the sign of a true leader. After a round of arrows being shot at the targets, he led the archers to find out how they had fared. The distance between the archers and the targets is 70 meters.
Samantha was first runner-up of the National Championships in 2007 and bagged the National title in 2008 and was once again relegated to the runner-up position in 2009. He has represented Sri Lanka at the last SAF Games Archery Championships in Jamshedpur, India. Presently Samantha is the Director of CEO Soft Logic Communications and a member of the CAS Archery Club
Eighteen-year-old Nipun Senevirate of the Sri Lanka Air Force is the current National Champion. He bagged this title for the first time in 2004 and since then has been keeping it with him with hawk-eye performances in 2005 and 2007. He has represented Sri Lanka at the World Championships, which was his first international competition.Major Jagath Weeratunga is always in a jovial mood despite an artificial limb. He is training hard to do well at his first international tournament which will be the SAF Games in Bangladesh. He has represented the Sri Lanka Army at archery contests.Beaming with confidence is Dilhara Salgado, a beautician and a former Methodist College schoolgirl. She is an experienced archer who has gained a love for the sport through her mother.
She bagged third slot at the SriLankan Airlines Archery Tourney in 2004 and just three days later won Gold at a club event and was selected to the national team in 2005 to contest at the Asian Archery Championships in India. She says that at the National Championships in 2007 she gained the highest score of 1225 points in the FITA Round, which is the highest recorded in Sri Lanka, She has also wielded her bow at the Pre-Asian Games in Doha, Qatar and was a member of the Silver winning team. She hopes to be a regular member of the Sri Lanka Air Force team in the near future. Her love for archery had also taken her to France for the World Archery Championships where she had fared pretty reasonably.
Sashikala Kumarasinghe was the only other girl archer present when the Sunday Times visited the scene. Shashikala is an Old Girl of Sirimavo Bandaranaike MV and presently attached to the sports personalities rich MAS Holdings at Borupana Road, Ratmalana as a Human Resources Executive. She has graduated to archery from pistol-shooting.
Sashikala’s achievements in archery are many. After completing her Advanced Level studies Shashikala had set her sights at archery in 2005 and qualified to be in the Sri Lanka team for the 2006 Archery Championships in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She won her first medal, a silver at the Archery Championships in 2007 and set up a National Record in the 70 meter event in 2008 and went on to win Gold at the National Championships in 2009. She was a member of the team which won a bronze at the South Asian Games in 2006 and at the 2008 bronze winning team in Kalicut, India also at the South Asian Championships. She is a National Graduate of the National Institute for Business Management (NIBM).
Didulee De Silva, daughter of H.U. Silva, a Senior Vice President of the Archery Association of Sri Lanka is another member of the National Archery team but was not present when the Sunday Times dropped in to interview the team.
The team’s coach is Nissanka Chandrasinghe and the Manager is Major Lakshman Karawita. |
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