The National rifle shooters will begin preparation this weekend for the West Indies full-bore championships which is being hosted by the Guyana National Rifle Association (GNRA) in October.
National Full-bore captain Mahendra Persaud disclosed that the local squad will be involved in a Practice Shoot tomorrow at the Timehri rifle ranges starting at 10:00 hours.
“This shoot is basically organized to allow the shooters to zero their rifles but we will start recorded shoots from next weekend,” he added.
The shoot will be over 300, 600 and 900 yards ranges.
Persaud said the lineup will include Ransford Goodluck, Lennox Braithwaite, Richard and Dylan Fields, Dane Blair, Charles Deane, Claude Duguid and Peter Persaud.
Two shooters, retired ACP Paul Slowe and Ryan Sampson are overseas and will miss the training session.
According to Persaud, there was a late start to the training programme due the ammunition problems, but this has since been sorted out.
“At the start of September the training will intensify to two days weekly leading up to the championships,” he added.
Guyana will be looking to capitalize on home advantage in the regional championships which will attract teams from Antigua/Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago
.
Guyana will be defending the long rang title won in 2010 in Barbados and will be looking to reclaim the short range crown on home soil after they were beaten by two points by Jamaica in Antigua last year.
The West Indies championships will run for five days with three days set aside for individual competition while the final two days will be for the team matches.
Guyana last hosted the championships in 2007 where they won the short range title but was edged out by Trinidad and Tobago in the long range match. The regional tournament will also serve to identify shooters to represent the West Indies team in an eight-nation championship to be staged in Barbados next year.
Some of the world’s leading shooters will be in the region representing teams such as Great Britain, Australia, Canada and United States of America.
