Two gold medals for Sri Lanka

13 - Gun Championship: At the Level IV Australasia 3 - Gun Championship concluded on the 24th October 2009 at Clark Eagle and O'Donnell Ranges in Manila, Philippines, Anusha Prasadika of Sri Lanka Air Force won the Gold Medal for the Overall Ladies 3 - Gun Championship, whilst also winning the Ladies Rifle discipline and finishing 3rd in the Ladies Handgun and Shotgun disciplines.

13-year-old Haritha Pilapitiya of the Hill Country Sport Shooting Club won the Gold Medal for the Overall 3 - Gun Championship in the under 21 Junior Category, finishing 1st in the Rifle and Shotgun Junior Categories. Both performances by Anusha and young Haritha are highly commendable and were the most outstanding displays of Rifle, Handgun and Shotgun shooting by the Sri Lanka team.

Chaminda Abeywardana of the SL Army won an Individual Bronze Medal by finishing 3rd in the Standard Division Rifle discipline, with a percentage of 92.0301. Nishantha Koswatta of the SL Army was placed 5th Overall in the 3 - Gun Championship, finishing 4th in the Standard Division Rifle Category with a percentage of 87.3640. It is unfortunate that despite these two fine performances, Sri Lanka was unable to win the standard Division Team Championship, due to poor performances by the other two members of the team and finished as 1st runners-up to the Standard Division National Team of the Philippines.

Lt. Col. Janaka Ritigahapola was placed 7th in the Overall Open 3 - Gun Championship, finishing 6th and 11th in Shotgun and Handgun disciplines, with percentages of 60.9721 and 85.4471 respectively, which was the best achievement by a Sri Lankan in the Open Division. Sujeewa Priyadarshani of the SL Navy, representing Sri Lanka for the first time, won the Shotgun discipline in the Ladies category, well ahead of the experienced Air Force shooters. A ladies' team was not entered as there were no other ladies' teams in the competition.

Sri Lanka Open Division team, comprising Janaka Ritigahapola, Inoka Weerasinghe, Anusha Prasadika and Haritha Pilapitiya also finished as 1st runners-up to the Open Division National Team of the Philippines.

There is no doubt that the Sri Lankan team has abundant natural talent for shooting with any type of firearm, but the Military Firearms and ammunition available to the National team are not competitive when compared to the highly sophisticated and modified firearms and precision made competition Ammunition used by other countries.

The 5.56 mm rifle ammunition used by the National Team was manufactured in 1989.

The team was accompanied by the National IPSC Coach, Capt. Sarath de Zoysa (Retd) with Air Commodore Kishan Yahampath and Major Jayanath Perera as the Manager and Assistant Manager, respectively.

The National Rifle Association is grateful to the Minister of Sports and Public Recreation for providing the Air tickets for the National team.