GPF and MMC dominate field
BOTH the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and defending champions Mekdeci Mining Company (MMC) dominated the second annual Guyana Association of Private Security Officers (GAPSO)/George Melville Memorial shooting competition which took place at the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) side arm ranges yesterday.
The GPF ‘B’ team got things started when they took the Disciplined Services Team Shoot from their ‘A’ and ‘C’ teams. They totalled 269 points, the ‘A’ team, comprising three females, scored 263 while the ‘C’ team were a distant third on 232 points.
Inspector Clifton Davis then took the Disciplined Services Individual Shoot with a total of 95 points and three V-bulls from his teammate Shawn Pantliz who took the runner-up position from his teammate Guy Nurse, by virtue of hitting inside the V-bull box three times in comparison to Nurse’s two, after they both ended on 91 points.
MMC easily retained their Team title, when they defeated COPS (Guyana) Limited by 18 points, registering 225 to the second-placed team’s 207, before Patrick Dickson and Clarence Lewis both of MMC, took top honours in the GAPSO Individual Shoot.
Dickson tallied 91 points to Lewis’ 87 and apart from their respective Champion’s trophy, both Davis and Dickson were presented with a Nokia cellular phone compliments of Digicel.
Prior to the presentation of the various prizes won, Colonel Bruce Lovell, second in command of the Guyana Defence Force, congratulated both GAPSO and the competitors for hosting another successful event to the memory of the late Melville, himself a former (GDF) Officer and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COPS (Guyana) Limited.
“I must express my gratitude to the executive members of GAPSO, for inviting me here today to deliver a few remarks at such a memorable event, held to honour a stalwart in the field of security here in Guyana.
“For sure, Melville himself would have been happy to see the intense rivalry amongst you, the competitors that took place today in his memory, but asked the competitors and even GAPSO to have a closer look at their field of choice.”
GAPSO has over 5 000 members from 21 private security firms here in Guyana, but Colonel Lovell challenged both the competitors and executive members of GAPSO to closely examine their role as security officers and security providers.
“Security is our core business. Once you are in the field of security, we are all managers of violence and one of the tools used to execute our duties is armed force and for us to be able to use same, we have to be in a state of readiness.
“That’s why events like these are greatly appreciated, as it can be used to hone our skills, for if we are unable to shoot properly, then we would not be in a position to execute our duties as managers of violence, especially the disciplined forces.
“I want to urge GAPSO to continue running off competitions of this nature, as it also helps to foster camaraderie amongst the security forces in Guyana and there is scope for it to get bigger and better and, hopefully, next year’s even would depict such,” Lovell stated.