Guyana’s rifle shooters, spearheaded by Ransford Goodluck, Mahendra Persaud and Lennox Braithwaite will throw down the gauntlet to a team of rifle shooters from Great Britain from today as they prepare for the upcoming Caribbean Rifle Shooting Championships in Barbados.
The British team, spearheaded by Nigel Penn, was scheduled to arrive last night after previously competing in the first leg in Jamaica.
The British shooters will next travel to Trinidad and Tobago before heading to Barbados to compete in the Australia Cup international shooting championships.
Captain of the regional team which will compete against team from Great Britain, Canada, the United States of America and Australia in the Australia Cup championships, former Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Slowe said yesterday in a brief statement:”We expect to do well in our campaigns. We have some of the leading marksmen in our team, and we will not be taking the guys from Britain lightly.”
“We will use this training as grounds for gaining momentum for the Barbados campaign,” he added.
Slowe made the comments at a Guyana National Rifle shooting Association (GNRA)press briefing held at Olympic House, high Street, Kingston yesterday prior to the arrival of the Great Britain Rifle.
Present yesterday were GNRA members national champion Ransford Goodluck, national full bore captain Mahendra Persaud, treasurer of GNRA Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Stuart, secretary Ryan Sampson, GNRA vice president Slowe and Public Relations Officer (PRO) Troy Peters.
Thirteen shooters from Britain are scheduled to compete in the four-day tour which commences today and concludes on Friday at the Timehri Rifle Ranges.
The two countries are required to form five-member teams to accommodate the participation of all the shooters from Great Britain, who also brought a few talented ladies to show off their shooting skills.
Today’s competition will be over 300 and 900yrds; tomorrow over 500 and 600yrds while the five-man team match has been scheduled for Thursday.
Meanwhile Barbados is expected to be transformed to a World of rifle shooting, when the region’s best marksmen compete at the Caribbean championships and the Australia Cup.
Guyana will be defending the long and short range full bore shooting titles they won last year and several members of the national line up will be seeking to secure spots on the West Indies team to compete in the Australia Cup for which Slowe is the skipper.
Local sniper Sigmund Douglas will be joining the national team in Barbados.
Members of the GNRA said yesterday that they have made financial pleas to the members of corporate Guyana in a bid to acquire funding to help the team to travel to Barbados.
So far a few positive responses have been given and they hope that persons continue to support the team as this outing is vital to the team and the sport in Guyana.
