FULLBORE captain of the Guyana National Rifle Association (GuyanaNRA) Mahendra Persaud is high in praise for the awesome performance of his countrymen that propelled them to victory last weekend in Antigua..The victory ensured the Guyanese riflemen remained Short Range champions of the Caribbean when the West Indies Fullbore Shooting Championships 2016 ended last Saturday at the Crabbs Rifle Range in Antigua and Barbuda.
The Guyanese shooters found themselves trailing Jamaica and Barbados at the end of the first range (300 yards) of the competition which is the fiercest of all among the top marksmen and women in the Caribbean.
Persaud noted that after they found themselves trailing Jamaica by 4 points (368/372) after the 300 yards, something which is not the norm, they regrouped ahead of the 500 yards shoot.
“At that point I was almost thinking that it was all gone, subsequently we went to 500 and we improved a bit. Myself and Head Wind coach Paul Slowe had a chat with the team, we shot a little better at 500 having regrouped but not as good as we can shoot.”At the 500 yards range the Guyanese team who had won the 4-man Wadadli Team Shoot on Friday, shot their way back into the lead with a total of 378 to Jamaica’s 367 and Barbados’ 365, the closest nations to the champs.
“Like everyone would say, we were all under the same conditions so if we were having a bad time other teams are probably also having a tough time; so we took courage from that.”
“When we got to the 600 yards and Slowe came back and said that we were ahead by about 7 points I said that if they couldn’t beat us the way we shot at 300 and 500, they would not beat us here at 600.
“When myself and Braithwaite came off with scores of 49, Peter had a 49 and the other guys were shooting well, the wheels started to turn and it all came together and I knew that when we came off with four 49s at 600 there was no way they could beat us, not in the conditions that we shot in. We fought hard at 600 yards, the coaches dug deep, we worked as a team and the rest is now history.”
Along with Head Wind coach Slowe, the others assisting were the captain Persaud, Lennox Braithwaite, Ransford Goodluck and vice-captain Dylan Fields. Slowe was also high in praise for the way the defending champions stood up to the challenge in carving a successful path to victory.
“Well, victories are always nice, what is even more satisfying is that we were able to dig deep and come back. We had a disastrous, by our standards, 300 yards; we’ve always said that you can’t win the shoot at 300 yards but you can definitely lose the competition there.”
After the 300 yards, Slowe said that during the team huddle, it was laid bare to the members that they had to step it up to bring home the bacon.
“I must say that the shooters dug very deep at 500 yards. But what was very surprising is that, notwithstanding the way we shot at 300 and 500 we were able to deliver. At 500 we turned on the heat, pulled it back and took the lead and were extremely confident that going to the 600 with a 7-point lead over Jamaica that we were going to deliver and that we did.”
Both captain and head coach said, “This is our Jubilee gift to the nation.”
Lennox Braithwaite emerged as the winner of the WOGART Cup being the top Individual Shot in the Short Range Championship. He won ahead of Barbados’ Shelly-Ann Hinds on Vs 16 to 14 after both accumulated 147 points over the three ranges.
The Guyanese shooters swept almost all the awards when the presentation took place on Saturday night at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.