Guyana’s shooting quartet of Lennox Braithwaite, Mahendra Persaud, Ransford Goodluck and Dylan Fields scored a major victory at the 2014 Rifle Shooting championships at Bisley rifle ranges in the United Kingdom yesterday.

The Guyanese won the Junior Overseas Competition with an overall score of 408 points with 40 V-bulls beating into second position the New Zealand side who ended with 407 points with 49 V-bulls.
Braithwaite the reigning Caribbean individual champion, national captain Persaud and national champion Ransford Goodluck are currently in training for the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland later this month.
The team was captained by United States-based Guyanese Sigmund Douglas.
The shooting condition was one Sighting shot and seven rounds to count at 300, 500 and 600 yards, for a maximum score of 420.
Braithwaite and Persaud are Guyana’s two-man pair , while Goodluck will serve as manager/coach for the Games which will open on July 23rd and will run until August 3rd.
At the X1X Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India in 2010, Guyana’s representatives then – Persaud and Goodluck placed a creditable fifth place from a line-up of 43 countries.
Persaud said: “It was a dream come through for us to win this prestigious match. We had been planning for this feat for some time but we never had a full squad. The opportunity presented itself today (Thursday).”
Persaud said the Guyana contingent is very focused ahead of the Commonwealth Games and the shooting ranges at Bisley are helping the team to prepare adequately.
The Guyana shooters have been in the United Kingdom for the past two weeks and Braithwaite, Persaud, Fields and Goodluck have performed exceptionally well.
In recent results, Goodluck and Fields both shot 49 with five V-bulls in the Conan Doyle 900 yards range match, while Braithwaite had an aggregate of 182 with 23 Vs at the 500 yards range.
Persaud dropped two points for a score of 73 points and 11 V-bulls in the St. George’s First Stage, while Braithwaite and Goodluck both recorded 103 points with 14 and nine V-bulls respectively.
The Times 300 Yards match saw Persaud scoring a possible (50.6), while at the Wimbledon T.R 600 yards Ransford Goodluck shot 49.4 and Braithwaite had an aggregate of 196.24 in the Holcroft shoot.
In the Century competition, Goodluck shot scores of 50.6 and 49.5 at 500 and 600 yards. Braithwaite and Goodluck are doing well after competition, while Braithwaite shot scores of 50.7 at 500 yards and 50.5 at 600 yards, for an overall score of 100.12. He finished in the 29th position.
Meanwhile, the Guyanese shooters will be in action again this weekend in the all-important Queen’s Prize individual championships where over 1700 shooters from around the world will battle for supremacy.
Persaud finished in the top 100 last year.