Entries have started to come in numbers for the National Shooting Sports Federation of Sri Lanka (NSSF) NSSF Trap Open Championship, which will be held at the Clay Target Shooting Club of Colombo’s Shotgun Range in Payagala, Kalutara from 11th to 14th March.
Under the leadership of Shirantha Peiris and purview of experts Mohan Gilbert as Match Director and Dinesh Lionel as Range Master, the Trap Open 2021 is NSSF’s second event of the 2021 calendar, where 11 meets are lined up.
“The NSSF Skeet Open was held earlier this month and it was a great success, given the fact that we were able to have events back after many months. Unlike the Skeet Open, we have many inquiries all are eager to take part, which will promise a good competition. Already over 65 entries have been received and interestingly all of them from civil clubs,” stated Pradeep Edirisinghe, the General Secretary of NSSF.
As conducted by the tournament regulations, participants will be allocated slots to shoot two rounds of 25 clays for a total of 50 clays on the first day.
“Shooters with Top 18 scores above 25 out of the first 50 clays will be detailed to shoot three more rounds of 25 clays to shoot a total of 125 clays. The top six shooters from the total of 125 clays will then move on to shoot the finals as per current ISSF format, where any tie breaks will also be settled. The scores from the first two rounds will be considered for the Team, Masters and Ladies categories. The tournament will be conducted as per ISSF rules and regulations,” Edirisinghe added.
NSSF will finalise the dates and time slots for clubs and will be circulated by March 7.
“Once all is finalised no changes will be made under any circumstances and clubs will be held responsible to ensure their competitors are present to shoot in the allocated squads,” Edirisinghe explained.
The overall winner of the Individual Open event will receive a gold medal and a certificate, while the next top two finishers will receive silver and bronze medals respectively with certificates.
The winners of the Team event will also receive the similar set of awards. In addition to the two main events Youth, Ladies and Masters categories are also slotted to take place depending on the number of entries received.
The four-day event will be the second shooting event to be held in almost 10 months, since sports activities in Sri Lanka were forced to call off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Promoting of shotgun shooting discipline is being done simultaneously while popularising air rifle and air gun disciplines around the country, mainly among youngsters. The forthcoming Trap Open Championship is one of the six shotgun events planned for 2021. – NSSF Media Release
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