– Guyana’s rifle shooters added the short range trophy to the long range one won earlier, to be crowned the undisputed champions of Caribbean rifle-shooting
The Guyana national rifle shooting team defeated all and sundry at the recently concluded Full Bore Championships held at the Twickenham Park Ranges in Jamaica.
The team not only retained the short range title they won last year but also regained the long range team title which they had lost to Trinidad and Tobago last year by one point to be the undisputed rifle shooting champions of the Caribbean.
A fine all-round effort saw the local riflemen come roaring back to defeat the Jamaicans after being behind at the end of the 300-yard range shoot.
Guyana shot 378 (30 V-bulls) at 300 yards which was way below the team’s potential. They placed second to Jamaica who shot 378 (35 V-bulls).
Ransford Goodluck shot a 50 (5 V-bulls) while Claude Duguid and Inspector Dane Blair both shot 49 (7 V-bulls).
However, a superb effort saw the locals shooting a remarkable 387 (37 V-bulls) at the 500 yards range with possibles from Goodluck ( 50, 6 V-bulls) John Fraser (50, 5 V-bulls) and Richard Fields (50, 4 V-bulls).
At this point Guyana had moved ahead of the Jamaicans by three points and the short range championship now became a two- team race with the others falling way behind.
Guyana was able to put together another sterling performance shooting 383 (41 V-bulls) while Jamaica shot 381 (37 V-bulls) at the 600-yard range.
The match was determined by the last shot fired.
For Guyana, Captain Mahendra Persaud shot a possible (50,7 V-bulls) and vice captain Dylan Fields a 49 (6 V- bulls).
Final scores were: Guyana 1148 (108 V-bulls), Jamaica 1143 (105 V-bulls), LMRA Combined 1128 (114 V-bulls), Trinidad and Tobago 1107 (74 V-bulls), Barbados 1090 (68 V- bulls) and Antigua and Barbuda 1024 (45 V-bulls).
Special trophies for both the long and short ranges were competed for by the West Indies teams and the LMRA Combined.
These trophies were also won by the Guyana rifle team.
The Grand Aggregate for both team events which were sponsored by Mitsubishi Motors, determined by the combined score of both the short and long ranges team scores, was also won by Guyana with a score of 1896 (193 V-bulls) to the LMRA Combined 1867 (178 V-bulls).
Jamaica was third with 1847 (147 V-bulls).
Guyana’s chief wind coach was Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe, who was assisted by captain Mahendra Persaud and Ransford Goodluck. The reserves were Sigmund Douglas and Major Terrence Stuart.
