E. M. Senanayake, who was disappointing in the 10 meter air rifle shooting event due to an air leak in his pistol came back to aggregate 545 points to be placed 36th in the 50 meter air pistol shooting in Beijing yesterday.

Senanayake collected 89, 93, 88, 88, 94 and 89 points respectively at the Beijing Shooting Range which is situated 25 kilometers off Beijing. His coach, Brigadier Kenath Edema commended his feat speaking to the Sri Lanka media.

Edema appreciated the comeback performance of Senanayake who couldn’t do well in his first event, the 10 meter air pistol shooting, due to an air leak in his pistol.

Although at times shooters miss the target completely in these events, Senanayake had bounced back to collect 10 out of 10 points. Brigadier Edema commended Senanayake’s ability to bounce back.

"Several foreign coaches appreciated this ability. They said that he would be a future prospect and it should be worth investing in him," said Edema.

Senanayake had been depressed with his performances at the 10 metre event and had been concentrating through exercises to build up his morale for yesterday’s event.

"90% of this sport depends on the mental fitness. Physically, it is 10 percent. This is not the end of Senanayake; this is just the start of a new journey," said Edema.

Senanayake, who hails from Handaganawa, Hasalaka is a Sergeant Major in the Singha Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army. Brigadier Edema reckoned that he should be provided with foreign training to succeed in pistol shooting. And the Sri Lanka Shooting Federation should take steps to provide him foreign training.

"Sri Lanka coaches (including himself) are not knowledgeable enough. A good foreign training is essential. Korea or China would be ideal for such training," said Edema.

Forty five shooters competed in the 50 meter Air Pistol Shooting event. Seng Liyang Tang of China, who aggregated 565 points (96, 94, 93, 96, 90, 96) won the gold. Jong Su Kim of North Korea (563) and Oleg Omelchuk of Ukraine (563) won the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Incidentally, five competitors aggregated 563 points each and Jao Konka of Portugal who is the world champion was placed 33 with 549 points.

Several shooters, including Senanayake, are looking forward to taking part in the South Asian Shooting Championship towards the end of this year. When queried whether the difficulty in obtaining slugs for shooters would hamper them, Edema said that there is no such problem as the bullets are obtained through the intervention of the Sports Ministry. But he said that since there is no strict procedure to use them the Ministry of Defense is reluctant to issue permission to import bullets.