National rifle shooting Captain Mahendra Persaud has expressed confidence that the Guyana’s shooters will deliver top class performance ahead of the team’s departure for the West Indies Fullbore shooting championships billed to fire off on Monday in Jamaica.
Persaud said that the training over the past two months went fairly well and the local shooters are composed and ready for the task at hand
“We are ready and are just waiting for the competition, the team is jelling as a unit and once we shoot well we can expect the best result,” Persaud said.
The recent coaching programme the team had with Great Britain’s top shooting coach Ian Shaw earlier this year at the Timehri rifle ranges is now paying off, the captain noted. The team leaves Sunday morning with 11 shooters and other officials and will be joined by two United States-based shooters in Jamaica.
The local shooters are Persaud (captain), Dylan Fields (vice captain), Lennox Braithwaite, Ransford Goodluck, Leo Romalho, Ryan Sampson, ACP retired Paul Slowe, Lt. Col. retired Terrence Stuart, Inspector Dane Blair, Peter Persaud and debutant Sherwin Felicien.
The two US-based shooters are seasoned campaigners Sigmund Douglas and John Fraser who have represented Guyana previously.
Persaud said the squad had a full run of the short range course shooting at 300, 500 and 600 yards last Sunday at Timehri.
“The wind was very tricky but this is the kind of condition we can expect in Jamaica,” he declared.
The 2014 West Indies Fullbore shooting championships will open on Monday at
Twickenham Park ranges in Kingston with three days of individual competition.
Guyanese Lennox Braithwaite won the Grand Aggregate last year in Barbados to be declared the regional’s top individual shooter for 2013.
The two team matches will take place next Saturday and Sunday with Guyana defending the long range (900, 1000 yards) title on Saturday while the competing countries will contest for the short range (300, 500 and 600 yards) title now held by the Jamaicans.
The regional championships will attract shooters from Antigua/Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana , Trinidad and Tobago and host Jamaica and a visiting Canadian delegation.
