Early days
When we are looking at the Air Rifles and Air Pistols which we use as sports equipment presently, the initial form of it was founded by the ancestors who lived in the Amazon and South America. In those days they used a bamboo in which they carved out the middle and this was used to kill the animals by putting a sharp object inside the bamboo and blowing on it from one corner. This instrument was called “The Blow Pipe”.
“BLOW PIPE”
That way they reached the animal target. The mechanism worked when the high pressure from the air off the blowing caused the tight area in the narrow pipe to propel the sharpened object to the target.
The beginning of the Air Rifle
By this conclusion, in 1779 the Italian Bertholomius Grandoni founded the “Grandoni’s Air Rifle”. In the war time period which was within 1780 – 1815, the Austrian army is said to have used this Grandoni’s Air Rifle on the field.
Accordingly the Air Rifle and Air Pistol have developed to a standard and presently it is using pellets as the sharp instrument which is akin to bullets. But when we are considering the difference between bullets and pellets, the bullets are propelled by burning powder and pellets are propelled by air or CO2. That’s why we can use Air Rifles and Air Pistols for sports events because it would not harm property or people. The pellets that are generally used for the Air Rifles and Air Pistols is with a diameter of .22 caliber or .177 caliber but for the 10 meter Air Rifle and Air Pistol sports event it uses .177 caliber pellets.
.177 CALIBER PELLETS
With the development of this Air Rifles and Air Pistols the “lock time” which is known as the time which takes for the pellet to reach the target through the Air Rifle or the Air Pistol has been shortened up to milliseconds.
Reaching Competition Level
As Air Rifles and Air Pistols were used by the officers of the armies, they started practices for target shooting and with that it improved the level of competition. From 1896 Air Rifle and Air Pistol Target Shooting Sports Events were introduced as an Olympic Sport. When it was selected it has been declared that this sport must be an event which will not harm any life. But unfortunately in the 1900 Olympics, this event initiated pigeons as the target. Because this broke the laws which prevailed at that time, the sport was removed from the list of events in the Olympics.
First records
When considering the records of this event, the first record was by Swedish Oscar Swahan who dominated the sport in that era. He had won 1 gold medal and 2 bronze medals in Britain in 1908 and 1 gold medal and 1 bronze medal in Sweden in 1912 and 1 silver medal in Canada in 1920. He also owned a special world record as the oldest person at the age of his 72 by winning a silver medal in Canada and this record still stands.
Introduction to Females
In the 1968 Olympics it was introduced to the females as well. But both males and females competed this event together. Until 1976 there was no female winner and Margaret Murdock who was an American lady broke the ice winning the silver medalat the Air Rifle Target Shooting event of the Canada Montreal Town Olympics.
Current curriculum
Currently there are two world tournaments which are held for Target Shooting. Those are conducted by the “International Olympic Committee- IOC” and by the “International Shooting Sport Federation”. Air Rifle and Air Pistol 10 meter Target Shooting Sports Event with .177 caliber pellets started in 1970 as a World Championship Competition and it was added to the Olympic curriculum from 1984.
International standardization
After the debacle of the shooting of pigeons, the event commenced as an Olympic sport from 1988 . The rules and regulations for this event were made by the International Shooting Sports Federation-ISSF and they subsequently went on to making arrangements to add males and female segments.
In the Olympics, a competitor has a time period and number of pellets to compete. It is different for males and females. It is 60 shots (pellets) within 105 minutes for men and 40 shots (pellets) within 75 minutes for women. Each shooter, male or female will get 10 minutes preparation time with any number of pellets. The target is always 10 meters away from the shooter and the distance from the floor level to the center of the target is 1400 mm. Also there are some restrictions while playing this event. One of them is that the player should be in an unsupported standing position.
The local arena
When looking at Sri Lankan Shooters, there are shooters who have won the International level too. Ravi Jayawardhana, Saal Chetti, Cornel Daya Rajasinghe, Pushpamali Ramanayake, Malee Wickramasinghe are some of them. Also when considering the Air Rifle and Air Pistol Target Shooting Sport at school level, the first target shooting practicing range in schools was made at Royal College, Colombo on 1902 by the School Cadet Crew. The special turning point in school level was the setting up of the Air Rifle and Air Pistol Target Shooting Schools Committee at Nalanda College Colombo in September 1990 and the first Inter –School Air Rifle and Air Pistol Target Shooting Competition being held in January 1994.
The Sri Lanka Schools Shooting Sports Association was established in July 2011 and annual tournaments are held around the schools and clubs around the country. The potential shooters are subsequently trained to participate at international level too.
International participation
As a result of this, the first national school team of Air Rifle and Air Pistol Target Shooting Sport participated in the International Air Gun Competition which was held in Munich, Germany on 23rd to 26th of January 2013.
Presently there are students keenly taking up the sport backed by the Sri Lanka Schools Shooting Association to participate at the International level and win for the country.
