Stafford’s Anishra to represent country at international air-gun competition in Poland

Monday, 24 November 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Anishra Odayar, a student in Form 3B of the Stafford International School, has been selected to represent Sri Lanka at the ‘Polmozbyt Plus – Polish Open Kaliber 2014’, an international shooting competition in the disciplines of air-rifle and air-pistol, to be held in Bialystok, Poland, from 27 to 30 November.

Anishra will be competing in the category of Air Pistol 40 and is the youngest competitor in the squad in addition to being the youngest ever competitor in Sri Lanka, participating in an international competition of this nature. Furthermore, she is the only competitor to have been selected from any international school for this competition. Hailing from an accomplished family of shooters, her mother Bonita, father Reza and brother Avishka being champion shooters in the national arena, with Reza and Avishka representing the country at international competitions, Anishra, a junior member of the Negombo Rifle Club, at a tender age of nine years was successful in achieving first place in the discipline of Silhouette Rifle (Minor) in the National Rifle Association sanctioned Small Bore National Rifle Championship (.22 Rimfire) in 2011, and in the same year achieved first place in both disciplines of Girl’s Production and Girl’s Match Rifle (Minor) at the Air Gun Open Championship conducted by Magnum Sport Shooting Club. In 2013, Anishra bagged the Silhoutte Light Rifle medal (Girls PeeWee) of the National Small Bore Rifle (.22 Rimfire) Championship. This year she successfully bagged both Silhoutte and Light (Girls PeeWee) Rifle medals at the National Small Bore Rifle (.22 Rimfire) Championship. Anishra also took part in the Sri Lanka Schools Air Gun selection for the Sri Lanka Schools national team, conducted by the Sri Lanka Shooting Sports Association, winning the coveted Sharp Shooter Sri Lanka Schools medal which catapulted her into the national squad. Anishra, along with her team mates and team officials depart Sri Lanka for Poland on 24 November, and will return on the 3 December.