Madushanka, Ranasinghe and Dharmaratne to represent SL in skeet

The top three clay target shooters of National Shooting Sport Federation (NSSF) Skeet Open 2021 Championship Prasad Madushanka, Sandakelum Ranasinghe and Shankar Dharmaratne qualified to represent Sri Lanka (SL) at the upcoming inaugural Online Asian Shooting Championship.

The top three finishers of the NSSF Skeet Open 2021 automatically qualifies for the regional event, which will be held later this week at shotgun ranges of each participating country. Results of the Online competition will be updated based on the officials’ observation and will be shared with the organisers in Kuwait, in real time.

“We will begin shooting at these competitions starting from 10:00 a.m. as instructed by the Asian Shooting Sport Federation at the Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo’s shotgun range facility in Payagala. We, as the NSSF, must take the responsibility for an honest report and these results are totally based on mutual understanding,” stated NSSF – SL General Secretary Pradeep Edirisinghe. 

The competitors, who will represent SL at the first Asian Online Shooting Championship, were picked from the NSSF Skeet Open Championship, which concluded last weekend at the Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo’s shotgun range in Payagala.

Prasad Madushanka from SL Air Force emerged as the champion in the Open Category, securing the gold medal, while his team mate Sandakelum Ranasinghe was placed second, and clinched the silver medal. Shankar Dharmaratne of Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo (CTSCC) finished third with the bronze medal.

Besides the top three finishers, Sanjeev de Silva and Shehan Patterson qualified for the final round representing CTSCC, while Senerath Menikdiwela and Rangala Wimalaratne qualified for Hill Country Shooting Sport Club. Representing Negombo Rifle Club, Dallas Martenstyn reached the top 10, alongside Nalinda Ranasinghe of Wayamba SSC and K.A.D.S. Bandara of Air Force.

While Madushanka, Ranasinghe and Dharmaratne finished as the best three in the Open, Dallas Mastenstyn emerged the champion of the Master’s Category. The Team Category was won by SL Air Force, represented by Madushanka, Ranasinghe and Bandara.

Though three skeet shooters qualified from the shotgun events, SL could not make progress in the 10m Air Rifle and 10m Air Pistol events as none of the local shooters managed to reach the minimum qualifying standards set by the organisers in Kuwait. Local shooters took part in training with the newly setup electronic target at a provisional facility located on a property owned by NSSF president Shirantha Peries, prior to taking part in a qualifier.