Samarakoon Mudiyansalage Mangala Samarakoon (born 26 August 1980) is a former Sri Lankan sport shooter. He also served as a non-commission officer for

Sri Lanka Army ta, இலங்கை இராணுவம் , image = File:Sri Lanka Army Logo.png , image_size = 180px , caption = Emblem of the Sri Lanka Army , start_date ...

as well staff sergeant of the Sri Lanka Army Service Corps.

Biography

Mangala was born in

Nuwara Eliya Nuwara Eliya ( si, නුවර එළිය ; ta, நுவரெலியா) is a city in the hill country of the Central Province, Sri Lanka. Its name means "city on the plain (table land)" or "city of light". The city is the administrativ ...

in Central Province as the only child in his family. His father was primarily involved in

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

as his family's main source of income was based on farming. He was educated at the Madawala Maha Vidyalaya in Uva Paranagama where he also pursued his athletics career.

Career

After completing his primary and secondary education at the Madawala Maha Vidyalaya, Mangala joined Sri Lanka Army on 18 January 2000 initially to pursue his training in athletics. However, he soon switched to the sport of shooting a year later after being spotted for his talent for shooting during military training. He was also coached by former veteran sport shooter Pushpamali Ramanayake for several years. After taking the sport of shooting in 2001, he began competing in several international competitions including the

South Asian Games The South Asian Games (SAG or SA Games), formerly known as the South Asian Federation Games (SAFG or SAF Games), is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among the athletes from South Asia. The governing body of these games is South Asia Olympic ...

, Asian Games,

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

and the Olympics. He made his mark in the sport of shooting after claiming a gold medal in the men's 50m rifle prone event during the

2006 South Asian Games The 2006 South Asian Games (also known as the 10th South Asian Games) were held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 18 August to 28 August 2006, in the Sugathadasa Stadium with more than 2000 sportspersons competing in the record 20 disciplines of Sport ...

. He also went onto represent Sri Lanka at the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, 2010 Asian Games,

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, ...

, 2012 Summer Olympics, 2014 Commonwealth Games,

2016 South Asian Games The 2016 South Asian Games, officially the XII South Asian Games, is a major multi-sport event which took place from 5 February to 16 February 2016 in Guwahati and Shillong, India. A total of 2,672 athletes competed in 226 events over 22 spor ...

, 2016 Summer Olympics and 2019 South Asian Games. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics representing Sri Lanka in the men's 10 metre air rifle and men's 50 metre rifle prone which was also his maiden Olympic appearance. He failed to advance in both. Samarakoon also represented Sri Lanka at the 2016 Summer Olympics which was held in Rio de Janeiro. During the 2016 Summer Olympics, he blamed the Sri Lanka Shooting Sports Federation for failing to provide him a suitable shooting kit which made his participation quite difficult when he was slotted to compete in the men's 10m air rifle event. He was settled only for 50th position in the men's 10m air rifle event during the Rio Olympics.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samarakoon, Mangala Sri Lankan male sport shooters 1980 births Living people Olympic shooters of Sri Lanka Shooters at the 2012 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2016 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2006 Asian Games Shooters at the 2010 Asian Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Sri Lanka Shooters at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Asian Games competitors for Sri Lanka South Asian Games gold medalists for Sri Lanka Shooters at the 2010 Commonwealth Games People from Central Province, Sri Lanka 20th-century Sri Lankan people 21st-century Sri Lankan people