National fullbore skipper Mahendra Persaud said the West Indies team will aim for their best come July when they wing out to the United States of America (USA) for the International Long Range Championships, which will be held at Camp Perry, Ohio.
Speaking with the veteran marksman yesterday during an interview, Persaud said that the team will not be deterred by their world class opponents but will instead put their best performances out when they challenge the world’s best snipers.
According to Persaud, the West Indies team, to be led by non-shooting Captain Major John Nelson, will rely heavily on their senior shooters. Eight out of the 18 are Guyanese, namely; Persaud, Sigmund Douglas, Ryan Sampson, Ransford Goodluck, Lennox Brathwaite, John Fraser, Dylan Fields and Leo Ramalho.
Persaud added that they will be without four or five top shooters due to work commitments.
The competition will involve shoots at 800, 900, and 1000 yards along with an Americas Match which will see teams sending up their best eight marksmen to compete over distances of 300, 600, 900 and 1000 yards.
There will be three days of individual shooting and two days of team shooting.
Despite playing with a highly-talented West Indies team, the vice-captain pointed out that this competition will be a stern test, not only for the Regional side, but the rest of the world as the best shooters from Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Australia, Continental Europe, Kenya, Great Britain and hosts USA, will be participating in the event.
Like the rest of the teams, West Indies will have two reserve shooters among their 18-man squad while seasoned shooter and retired assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe will be the Wind Coach.
Speaking about their setbacks heading into the competition, Persaud indicated that apart from waiting on their high-quality ammunition to arrive in Guyana, the marksmen have gone through some decent sessions using high quality short range ammunition which is good up to 500 yards in order to practice with a 300-yard target which is smaller, thus improving their long-range precision.
Apart from the ammunition, which according to Persaud is already in Guyana and waiting to be cleared by Customs, the weather, which has been rampant lately has not bothered them in any way and hoped that it continued until they are ready to depart.
“We hope the ammo can be released in time for this weekend’s practice session and the weather didn’t not hamper our shoot,” said Persaud adding that should rain stop their training, they will then train electronically although he opined that outdoor simulations are still the best and hoped to push in eight or nine more sessions before departing.
The vice-skipper added that their general aim is to do well and shoot or even outshoot their fellow competitors.
“I guess all we could do is our best and let the results fall where they may. We are up against the best teams in the world they are probably a few of us that are good with the best in the world”, explaining that the other teams have top crops of shooters while acquiring high-end ammo and being exposed to high levels of shooting simulations gives them an obvious edge when compared to those of the West Indies.
In closing, the national captain said that sponsorship continues to be a big thing but is hopefully that now the country has settled following the Regional and General Elections, that sponsors can now lend their support. “We sent out letters and we got some responses, but now that things are back to normal we should get a few more and hopefully go out and make the tour a success”.
He also thanked Fly Jamaica, who he said gave them a nice package deal for their travelling purposes.
