Rural boy E.M. Senanayake books place for Olympics Pistol Shooting

by Lal Gunesekera

PISTOL SHOOTING: E.M. Senanayake from the Army brought honour to Sri Lanka by winning a ?quota place? to compete at the Beijing Olympics next year (2008) in the Men?s 50 M Pistol Event with an excellent performance at the just concluded Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait where shooters from 48 countries participated.

Considered the most difficult and most demanding of the Olympic Pistol events, Senanayake, shot an excellent 553/600 to win Sri Lanka a place at the Beijing Olympics. Considered the ?blue riband? of Olympic Pistol Shooting events, the level of difficulty can be judged by the fact that the world record established by Alexander Melentier of Russia in 1980 has been untouched for the last 27 years.

Senanayake has been fighting in the front lines of the Northern Province for the last eight years, has now won a place to fight in the front lines of world sport at the highest level - the Olympics. Securing a ?quota place? earns a country a definite place in the start line and into the elite of world shooting.

This is a historic occasion for Sri Lanka, being the very first instance any Sri Lankan Pistol Shooter has won a place to compete in the Olympic Games. The honour is greater considering that countries world wide compete fiercely for the very limited number of places in the start line-up and thus be included in the elite group of the world.

Born in rural Hasalaka in a little village called Handaganawa, 35-year-old Senanayake attended the Handaganawa Central College and Morayaya Sanghabodhi College to complete his education. He fulfilled his desires and joined the Army in 1990 serving eight years in operational areas in the North. His shooting talents were recognised by the Army and was inducted into the Markesmanship Unit at Diyatalawa end 1997.

After initial training under Lt. Col D.B. Rajasinghe and Col B.P. Kularatne, Senanayake came under the supervision of Brigadier K.W. Edema.

In the run up to the 2006 South Asian Games, Senanayake, Showed marked improvement under the guidance of Brigadier Edema and Rohana Nanayakkara (national coach) by establishing several Sri Lanka records.

This culminated in Senanayake winning two silver medals and a bronze at the 2006 South Asian Games. He also had good scores at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in 2005 and 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

Two others represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait. They were Mangala Samarakoon and Ruwini Abeymanne. Samarakoon also of the Army turned in a good performance in the Men?s Rifle events of 3 x 40 Free Rifle which was consistently higher than his performances in Sri Lanka, while Abeymanne, could not perform upto expectations in both the Women?s 25 Pistol and 10 M Air Pistol events.