Guyana’s rifle shooters have begun to heighten their preparations in order to defend the Regional long range title while attempting to recapture their short range title in the 2014 West Indies Fullbore shooting championships to held at the Twickenham Park ranges in Kingston, Jamaica next month.
The West Indies fullbore championships scheduled for May 5-10 will feature Antigua/Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago while a team from Canada is expected to attend as a guest team.
With the Commonwealth Games a few months away, the regional shooters will be looking to perform at their best ahead for the Games in Scotland in July.
The local team relinquished the short title to Jamaica last year at the Paragon Ranges in Barbados and National Fullbore captain Mahendra Persaud disclosed that the local shooters will be involved in team practice matches for the remainder of the month before flying out to Jamaica.
“We have been in intense training since the start of the year with individual training and recorded matches but now our concentration will be on team preparation,” Persaud stated.
“We are extremely focused for the upcoming regional tournament and the recent training programme conducted by experienced British coach Ian Shaw who was in Guyana for two weeks sponsored by the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) was very in-depth and we are now ready to put our new skills into practice,” Persaud added.
The top marksman also pointed out that there will be a few adjustments to the team this year due to injury to Dane Blair and the death of Charles Deane who competed in Barbados last year. He is, however, confident of the return of Ryan Sampson who was unavailable to travel to Bridgetown last year and with the inclusion of new shooting sensation Sherwin Felicien.
The current training squad also includes reigning Caribbean Individual champion Lennox Braithwaite, the experienced Ransford Goodluck, Vice-captain Dylan Fields, Leo Romalho, Peter Persaud and Lt. Col. Terrence Stuart.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (retired) Paul Slowe, at present overseas, will join the training before the team leaves for Jamaica. Persaud said that United States-based Guyanese shooters John Fraser and Sigmund Douglas, two regular members will also be a part of the Guyana delegation and will travel directly to Jamaica.
Sunday’s team shoot at the Timehri Rifle Ranges will be at the 300, 500 and 900 yards ranges starting at 10:00 hours.
