A strong four-man team will represent Guyana at this weekend’s Antigua/Barbuda Goodwill Rifle Shooting tournament ahead of the West Indies Fullbore Championships next week in Barbados.
National Fullbore Captain Mahendra Persaud, National champion Ransford Goodluck, Ryan Sampson and Lt. Col. Terry Stuart will be Guyana’s representatives at the tournament in St John’s that will feature some of the leading shooters in the Caribbean.
Sampson who is also Secretary of the West Indies Fullbore Council disclosed that the Goodwill tournament has been organized as a trial for the Antigua/Barbuda Rifle Association who is preparing to host the regional championships next year.
According to Sampson teams from Bermuda, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and the host nation will compete in the Goodwill series, which runs from May 21-23 at the island’s new shooting range.
Sampson said the teams will be going to assess the capacity of Antigua/Barbuda to host next year’s regional tournament.
The Antiguans became active members of the regional rifle shooting family five years ago.
According to Sampson, once Antigua gets the “green light” to host next year, Guyana the scheduled host will now stage the event in 2012. The four local shooters are in top form this season and all eyes will be on veteran shooter Goodluck who is at the top of his game.
Goodluck shot three possibles again as Guyana six-man team posted 609 points and 70 V-bulls in the regional Crown Mining sponsored Postal Shoot at the Timehri rifle ranges last Sunday out of a highest possible score of 630/132 V-bulls.
The former regional champion shot 35.6 at the 300 yards, 35.5 at 500 and 35.5 at 600 yards for a total of 105 with 16 V-bulls.
Persaud who returned to Guyana Saturday evening was also in top nick scoring 103 points with 13 V-bulls with scores of 35.5 at 300 and 34.4 at both 500 and 600 yards.
Richard Fields was also impressive with 103.8 (34.4 at 300, 34.3 at 500 and 35.1 at 600.”
Ryan Sampson and Dylan Fields both scored 100 points with 11 and 13 V-bulls respectively.
Claude Duguid shot 98 with 9 Vs.
The coaches were ACP Paul Slowe, Persaud and Goodluck.
Meanwhile, rain forced the cancellation of the team practice shoot at 900 and 1000 yards ranges.