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Pushpamali Ramanayake

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Pushpamali Ramanayake
Personal information
Full namePushpamali Ramanayake
NicknameIrene
Nationality Sri Lanka
Born (1967-12-25) 25 December 1967 (age 56)
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Height1.56 m (5 ft 1+1⁄2 in)
Weight55 kg (121 lb)
Sport
SportShooting
Event(s)10 m air rifle (AR40)
50 m rifle 3 positions (STR3X20)
ClubSri Lanka Army[1]
Coached byPasan Kularathe[1]

Pushpamali Ramanayake (born December 25, 1967 in Colombo) is a Sri Lankan sport shooter.[2] She has competed for Sri Lanka in rifle shooting at three Olympics (1992, 1996, 2004), and has won a gold medal with fellow shooter Malini Wickramasinghe in the air rifle pairs at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.[1]

Career

Ramanayake began shooting in 1989 as a member of the Sri Lankan Army under the tutelage and early stewardship of former Olympian and commanding officer Daya Rajasingha.[3] Three years later, she made her Olympic debut as the first ever female shooter to represent Sri Lanka at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, finishing a distant thirty-seventh in the 10 m air rifle with a score of 382 points.[4]

In 1994, Ramanayake reached the peak of her shooting career by landing successfully to fifth place in her pet event at the Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan with 488.7 points.[1] Ramanayake's rise continued on that same season, when she and her fellow markswoman Malini Wickramasinghe won Sri Lanka's first ever gold medal in the air rifle pairs at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia.[5]

On her second Olympic appearance in Atlanta 1996, Ramanayake flaunted her most potential form to shoot a modest 389 for a twenty-fifth place tie with three others in her signature event, the 10 m air rifle.[6] Ramanayake also competed in the 50 m rifle 3 positions, but finished a lowly thirty-sixth in a 38-shooter field at 564, trailing her teammate Wickramisinghe by just a single point.[7]

Despite missing her 2000 Olympic bid, Ramanayake had capped off a historic eight-year comeback for her third Games in Athens 2004, after the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka decided to nominate her through an Olympic invitation as the most experienced shooter.[8] She managed to get a minimum qualifying score of 392 in air rifle shooting from her outside-final finish at the Asian Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia few months earlier.[1][9] In the 10 m air rifle, held on the first day of the competition, Ramanayake started off with a modest 97 in the first series, but fared poorly on the second and fourth to get a decent 386 out of a possible 400, finishing thirty-eight out of forty-four shooters in the qualifying round.[10][11] Nearly a week later, in the 50 m rifle 3 positions, Ramanayake marked a steady 195 in prone, a lowly 181 in standing, and 191 in the kneeling series to close her historic Olympic run out of the final in a tie for twenty-fifth place, her career best after eight years, with Australia's Susan McCready at 567 points.[12]

Olympic results

Event 1992 1996 2004
50 metre rifle three positions — 36th
564 		25th
567
10 metre air rifle 37th
382 		25th
389 		38th
386

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "ISSF Profile – Pushpamali Ramanayake". ISSF. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  2. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Pushpamali Ramanayake". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2016-12-04. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  3. ^ Fernando, Reemus (4 July 2012). "Pushpamali pays tribute to Rajasingha, Assesses Present Situ". Sri Lanka: The Island. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  4. ^ "Barcelona 1992: Shooting – Women's 10m Air Rifle" (PDF). Barcelona 1992. LA84 Foundation. p. 349. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  5. ^ Weerawansa, Dinesh (4 February 2004). "Remarkable advancement in sports". Sri Lanka: Daily News. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  6. ^ "Atlanta 1996: Shooting – Women's 10m Air Rifle" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 119. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Atlanta 1996: Shooting – Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 120. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  8. ^ Weerawansa, Dinesh (9 August 2004). "Pushpamali 'shoots' first for SL". Sri Lanka: Daily News. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  9. ^ "Shooting 2004 Olympic Qualification" (PDF). Majority Sports. p. 10. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  10. ^ "Shooting: Women's 10m Air Rifle Prelims". Athens 2004. BBC Sport. 15 August 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  11. ^ "Pushpamali 38th in women's 10m. air rifle event". Sri Lanka: Sunday Observer. 14 August 2004. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  12. ^ "Shooting: Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions Prelims". Athens 2004. BBC Sport. 15 August 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
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