Sri Lanka win three championships

SHOOTING: Sri Lanka's National Practical Shooting Team competing in the Asian Level 111 IPSC Championships won three Championships at the recently concluded meet held in Malaysia.

The Lankans won the Open and Production Division Team Championship in addition to Anusha Prasadika of Sri Lanka Air Force winning the Ladies Individual Championship. Lt.Col. Janaka Ritigahapola could consider himself extremely unlucky to have missed the Open Division Overall Championship by a 'whisker' ,due to a blunder made by the Thai Range Officer .

Lt. Col. Janaka Ritigahapola who is the captain of the team, in a bid to popularise the sport displayed some video clippings of the Sri Lanka team at the 80 Club during press briefing and said that Practical Shooting undoubtedly is by far the most popular and the fastest growing shooting sport in the world.

"Practical Shooting means , as the name implies, the practical use of "Big Bore" fire arms to hit the centre of multiple targets of different shapes, placed at different distances, which may or may not moving, from a variety of positions, as fast as you can", Janaka Ritigahapola said.

"The ultimate winner is the person who can engage all the targets accurately in the fastest possible time. Therefore, the challenge is not only to engage the targets accurately, but also to do so faster than the other competitors, because at the end the score is divided by the time taken, electronically timed up to the second decimal place!.

It is a very complex and challenging sport, requiring a very high level of hand - eye coordination, agility, speed of movement and reflexes, in addition to physical and mental fitness, combined with precision made firearms and ammunition."

This sport was introduced by Ravi Jayewardene in 1978 when he was actively involved in the sport while in Western Australia. For the 11 years it was confined only for the armed forces and for the police mainly as a means of sharpening and improving the shooting skills required for combat.

From 1978 to 1989, for 11 consecutive years the annual National Practical Shooting Championships was held in Katukurunda under the patronage of the President. There after it was decided to bring the sport under the purview of the National Rifle Association, in order to provide an opportunity for our talented shooters to participate in International competitions.

Results of the ASEAN Level 111 IPSC Championship held in KL - Malaysia from 3rd to 6th May 2007.

Open Division Team Championship:

1. Sri Lanka .( Lt.Col. Janaka Ritigahapola, LtlCol. Pooraka Seneviratne, Flt. Sgt. Raja Rohitha, Major Shawantha Kulatunga.)

2. Philippines 3. Thailand. 4. Indonesia.

Production Division Team

1. Sri Lanka ( S\Sgt. Gamini Herath, PC Sumal Silva, WO 11 Chadana Wedisinghe, L\Cpl Jayantha Pathmasiri.

2. Malaysia GGK 3. Malaysia Production Team. 4. Philippines. Ladies Individual Championship. 1.LAC Anusha Prasadika 2. Sgt. Inoka Weerasinghe.

3. Judy Luk ( HongKong), 4. Winnie Kwok (HongKong). Open Individual Championship. 1. Arief Zaenal (Indonesia), Janaka Ritigahapola (Sri Lanka), 3. Kenneth Augustine (Philippines) 4. Raja Rohitha (Sri Lanka).

R.A.