Guyana’s rifle shooters, the reigning Caribbean short range champions departed the country yesterday to compete in the regional Rifle shooting championships billed for next week in Kingston, Jamaica
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Two United States-based Guyanese shooters, Sigmund Douglas and John Fraser are expected to join the Guyana nine-man contingent which is being led by Mahendra Persaud.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe, will serve as manager/shooter.
Other member of the team are the in-form Ransford Goodluck, seasoned campaigner, Richard Fields, Dylan Fields, Ryan Sampson, Inspector Dane Blair, Claude Duguid and Major Terrence Stuart.
Secretary of the Guyana National Rifle Association (GNRA) Ryan Sampson expressed confidence that the team would excel at the championships and identified Goodluck, Richard Fields and Persaud as the shooters to watch during the event.
“Presently all the shooters are in top gear as was evident in their performances against the London/Middlesex Rifle Association (LMRA) team that visited Guyana recently. We are hoping to maintain that high level of competitiveness at the championships, Sampson disclosed.
The championships start tomorrow with practice sessions while Tuesday to Thursday are set aside for the Individual competition.
Friday is a planned rest day with Saturday and Sunday set aside fort he Team matches.
The competing countries in the regional competition are Antigua/Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and hosts Jamaica.
They will be joined by the visiting LMRA shooters now on the final leg of their Caribbean tour.
The Guyanese are current champions of the short range title and will be looking to retain the long range crown they surrendered to Trinidad and Tobago by one point last year when the championships were hosted by Guyana at the Timehri Rifle ranges.
Sampson said that the team received tremendous support and expressed gratitude to the Patron of the GNRA His Excellence President Bharrat Jagdeo for his kind assistance.
“We are also please with the response from the donors who came forward to assist is defray our expenses including the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, National Sports Commission, Industrial Safety Equipment, Bank DIH Ltd., GT&T, Bank of Guyana, Citizen’s Bank, Scotia Bank, Laparkan, Cummings Electrical, Terry Singh, Queensway, GDF, Johnny Carpenter, Richard Van Sluytman, Gavin Jeffrey and some other private individuals, Sampson said.
