Had to undergo many hardships for my Gold Medal - Mangala

Chris Dhambarage

SHOOTING: The Sri Lanka rifle shooting team put up a splendid performance to win two gold, six silver and nine bronze medals at the recent concluded South Asian Games in Colombo.

The best effort among the men certainly came from young Mangala Samarakoon of Sri Lanka Army who won a gold medal in the fifty metre prone shooting event. His performance was even more significant considering the fact that he also established a new South Asian Games record and beat the previous highest score of 592 set up by Colonel Lucky Rajasinghe way back in 1991.

Samarakoon altogether collected a total of 102.3 points in the final event. He also bagged a bronze medal in the three by 40 event and followed up with a silver medal in the team championship. This was also the first time that a Sri Lankan shooter had won a medal in the three by 40 event which is considered as the toughest competition in this meet.

In that case Samarakoon has performed a near impossibility and has been earmarked as one of the brightest prospects to win a medal at the Asian Games to be held in Doha Qatar in December. In a short period of time with limited training and practices he has developed into a fine shooter which is a clear example of his commitment and dedication towards the sport.

In fact he was faced with a series of difficulties prior to the South Asian Games and felt that he did not have the home advantage unlike in most of the other sporting events. This was mainly due to the delay in preparing the shooting range at Welisara and because of the non availability of ammunition and the training equipment.

Samarakoon started his preparations for the South Asian Games with his colleagues at the Panagoda shooting range but found it difficult to get accustomed to the newly constructed shooting range at Welisara.

In addition to these various logistic problems he also faced the trauma of competing under humid conditions which was really taxing too much from the competitors.

Even then Samarakoon was more determined to make an impact having failed to win a medal at the previous South Asian Games which was held in Islamabad, Pakistan. This time he was well prepared and had made up his mind and really proved himself in the side with a magnificent performance.

His preparations included two overseas tours to Australia and Malaysia where he had the opportunity of training and participating against some of the top competitors.

Samarakoon was educated at Madawala Maha Vidyalaya in Uva Paranagama, Welimada where he excelled in track and field events. His pet events were the 100, 200 and 400 metres where he has been outstanding while representing his school at junior national championships.

He is the only child in the family and their main source of income comes through their father who is involved in farming. Samarakoon also had the misfortune and the embarrassment of losing all his medals and some of his belongings in a private bus on his way to a friend's home in Seeduwa just a couple of days after the South Asian Games.

But he recovered all of them thanks to a faithful commuter and through the courtesy of a private television station. Samarakoon who is the reigning national champion for this event, paid tribute to the national coach Rohana Nanayakkara, Army coaches Brigadier Kenneth Idama and Sergeant W. W. Dayaratne for their support and guidance in helping him to win a gold medal.

He also thanked the Commanders of the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Navy, Special Task Force for providing the ammunition and Commander Rohana Perera of Sri Lanka Navy and Captain Senaratne who was the manager of the Sri Lanka rifle shooting team.