A first of its kind, the inaugural competition dedicated to Youth and Junior shooters of the country was held from 22 to 26 October at the Athugala Air Gun Range in Uhumeeya, Kurunegala.
Conducted by the Athugala Shooting Sports Club, The 1st Athugala Air Gun Championship 2021 ended a competition drought of almost two years due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The age groups for shooters under-18 years of age falls to the Youth category and those who are under-21 years of age will come under the Junior category. Event segments included Air Rifle and Air Pistol for male and female under both Youth and Junior.
The top six shooters of each of the four categories were considered for national Youth and Junior pools provided they achieve the National Shooting Sport Federation of Sri Lanka (NSSF) minimum qualifying standards as stipulated by the organisers.
Chanidu Senanayake of Athugala Sports Shooting Club, a member of the Sri Lanka Youth pool, claimed the men's Junior Air Rifle event while Nameer Salley and Kavindu Adithya Bandara were placed second and third respectively. Amandika Amerasinghe won the women's Junior event. Limini Pasqual and Ashini Senadheera were placed second and third respectively.
In the Youth segment, P. Suraweera won the men's 10m Air Pistol event, while Helindu Bandaranaike and Ravin Premaratne won second and third place respectively. Neja Dissanayake won the women's 10m Air Pistol Youth category while Anjani Daluwatta and Hasunika Amarasinghe were placed second and third respectively.
Yashoda de Silva won the women's 10m Air Pistol Junior event and Movindu Wijenayake won the Junior men's event.
