Guyana, the 2012 West Indies fullbore shooting champions will host the Great Britain Rifle shooting team during the first half of this year ahead of an international shooting championship in Barbados.
This disclosure was made during the Annual General Meeting of the Guyana National Rifle Association (GNRA) held Thursday at Bank of Guyana Roof Garden.
The British shooters are due in Guyana in April to engage the regional champions in a series of matches at the Timehri rifle ranges.
The two teams will then travel to Barbados for the West Indies Fullbore championships and the Australia Cup to be hosted by the Barbadians. The Australia Cup International Tournament will attract the national teams of Australia, Canada, United States of America, Great Britain and a West Indies line up to be captained by Guyanese Paul Slowe. Reporting to members of the Association at the Meeting, Secretary Ryan Sampson said that the GNRA had a very successful year in 2012 and will be going all out to achieve greater success in 2013.
According to Sampson the Association will be looking to complete rehabilitation work at the Timehri rifle and pistol ranges which started last year with the assistance of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
Sampson said the GNRA is still pursuing the construction of a state-of-the-art Club House and Indoor Range at Tuschen, in West Demerara.
He reported the handgun shooters also performed creditably at tournaments in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago and indicated that there has been an increase in membership in the smallbore section.
Sampson said that local rifle and handgun competitions were hampered by the unavailability of ammunition but plans are on stream to rectify the problem.
Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar accepted to be Patron of the Association and fired the first shot to start the WIFSC in October at Timehri, the first for any head of state in the region.
He said the Association plans to reactivate Paint Ball competitions and will continue its blood donation drive as part of the its social responsibility. The AGM agreed on a new motion to add the Rules of Smallbore Shooting to its Constitution.
Sampson lauded the media for providing coverage of the Association’s programmes for 2012.
Chief of Staff of Guyana Defence Force Commodore Gary Best was returned as President.
The two Vice Presidents being returned were Richard B. Fields S. C. and ACP (ret’d) Paul Slowe. Ryan Sampson was return as the Secretary and Lt Col. Terrence Stuart as the Treasurer, both were unopposed.
The Assistant Secretary/ Treasurer remains Hemant Narine, Fullbore Captain Mahendra Persaud and Vice Captain Dylan Fields were unopposed.
The new Smallbore Captain is Dale Hing with Gordon Richards being returned as Smallbore vice Captain. There are two new Committee Members being Lennox Braithwaite and Dr. Johan DaSilva with Mohamed Qualander retaining his Committee position. Ray Beharry and Ransford Goodluck were elected auditors.
The PRO for the Guyana NRA will be appointed next Wednesday at the first Statutory Meeting. It is strongly felt that current PRO Troy Peters will be unopposed in this position.
