Shooting is one of the few sports in which Sri Lanka has displayed the potential to win medals at international level. Shooters have regularly made their mark at the Olympics by achieving the minimum qualifying score (MQS).
Among them is three-time Olympian Pushpamali Ramanayake who represented Sri Lanka in Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), and Athens (2004).
However, the era when sharpshooters like the Rajasingha brothers Daya and Lucky, Zal Chitty, Ravi Jayewardene, and Rohana Nanayakkara, were household names in the sport seems like a distant memory. Just like in athletics, Sri Lanka was ahead of regional giants India at one time but the standard of the shooting sport has sunk due to a variety of reasons.
Sri Lanka has reaped a harvest of medals at the South Asian Games but the gold standard is the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, or Asian Games. It has been more than two decades since Susanthika Jayasinghe claimed a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 52 years after Duncan White became Sri Lanka’s first Olympic medallist in London in 1948. It is also nearly three decades since shooters Pushpamali Ramanayake and Malini Wickramasingha were created at the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games.
The shooting duo ended Sri Lanka’s gold medal drought at the Commonwealth Games in British Columbia, Canada when they won the women’s air rifle pairs event, 44 years after Duncan White clinched gold at the 1950 Auckland Games. This was only Sri Lanka’s second gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, the first being boxer Barney Henricus at the 1938 Sydney Empire Games. Sri Lanka’s only other gold medal at the Commonwealth Games came in weightlifting through Chinthana Vidanage at 2006 Melbourne.
Shooting has been excluded from Birmingham 2022 but it is appropriate to relive the golden feat in Victoria. Wickramasingha also won an individual silver while Dodangoda Chandrasiri and Lakshman Rajasingha also brought glory to Sri Lanka by bagging the silver medal in the men’s Small Bore Rifle, Prone pairs event.
“We have won several medals (not gold) at international events in the shooting but have not won a medal in Commonwealth Games since 1994,” said Ramanayake with a hint of pride but lamented the fact that the sport is in the doldrums.
Despite being an accomplished markswoman who has brought glory to Sri Lanka in the international arena both as an athlete and coach, the retired Army officer has been shunned by the sport’s governing body. Her last association with shooting in Sri Lanka was accompanying her product Mangala Samarakoon as a coach for the 2016 Rio Olympics and taking a couple of junior shooters to Indonesia.
She is not even aware that shooting is not a discipline in Birmingham. Whereas her gold medal-winning partner Mali Wickramasinghe has migrated to England, Ramanayake is kicking her heels at home in Minuwangoda. “I am not called or invited for any shooting events. They take advantage of our medals in 1994 by talking about it since there are no medals thereafter but we have been dumped by the wayside,” said Ramanayake without pulling her punches.
An all-around sportswoman who became All Island schools gymnastic champion for three years, Ramanayake shot into prominence when she joined the Army women’s corps because of her shooting skills. Handpicked by Olympian Daya Rajasingha when the Army’s Sniper and Marksman School was established in 1990, Ramanayake emerged as a shooting star within a short time.
She created history in Barcelona becoming the first ever female shooter to represent Sri Lanka in the Olympics, finishing with a score of 382 points in the 10m air rifle. She travelled without a coach on her Olympic debut but fortunately, Daya Rajasinghe who was with the Oman team was on hand to assist her.
Ramanayake slammed sports authorities in Sri Lanka for getting their priorities mixed when sending athletes to international competitions. “A manager can’t perform the role of a coach. A shooter needs technical expertise. The problem in Sri Lanka is officials want to go on tours. A coach should be given priority,” she said. Shooter Tehani Egodawela also went to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics without her coach.
Ramanayake was at her peak in 1994, clinching a fifth place in her pet event at the Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan with 488.7 points. This was before claiming Sri Lanka’s first-ever gold medal in the air rifle pairs in Victoria. She was among the top two during qualifying matches but was distracted by the manual scoring system with judges giving decimal points to perfect shots denying her a gold medal in the individual rankings.
Ramanayake scored a modest 389 in Atlanta in the 10m air rifle while also competing in the 50m rifle 3 positions event.
Despite missing out on the 2000 Olympic bid, Ramanayake made a comeback in Athens four years later after achieving an MQS of 392 at the Asian Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia a few months earlier.
Alongside her shooting career, she created a record of sorts by being promoted to Warrant Officer from other ranks within a short span of six years because of her shooting skills. However, a spinal injury ended her career prematurely despite her efforts to make a comeback by healing the slipped disc with ayurvedic medicine. She returned to the Army after retirement to complete 20 years of service and took up coaching the Army team with equal gusto, producing Olympian Mangala Samarakoon.
The second child in a family of three, 54-year-old Pushpamali Irene Ramanayake, is now lost to the sport like many stars despite having a wealth of experience and knowledge about the shooting sport. Her attempts to get a D coaching license was scuttled because of the covid-19 outbreak but offers her expertise whenever it is sought by schools or clubs.
“We were ahead of India but they improved by leaps and bounds because of government patronage for the sport after 1995 and foreign coaches. They went on to win Olympic medals in shooting whereas our standard stagnated,” she said, pointing out that Sri Lanka lacked international standard shooting ranges.
Another issue is procuring pellets for training purposes. “You can’t become a top shooter by firing 100 pellets a day during training. When Samarakoon went to Rio, we had to purchase pellets from abroad. How can you do well with a few days of training and limited resources,” she claimed.
Fortunately, she had no such problems during her career in the Army because there were people like her Commanding Officer Col Daya Rajasingha who propagated the sport. Ironically, the scarcity of getting pellets for training occurred after the war against LTTE ended. “There is hidden talent but at the moment only those who can afford are indulging in this expensive sport,” she added.