GUYANA’S top rifle shooter Ransford Goodluck describes the just concluded West Indies Fullbore Championships as the worst he has ever attended.

In an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport, Goodluck who won the individual title last year when Jamaica hosted the championship said this year’s championship, which was hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Rifle Association, was the worst year for him and other Regional marksmen. “I have been involved in the sport since 1979 and I’ve never encountered such problems like I faced while in Trinidad last week.”

Asked to explain, Goodluck who has represented Guyana regionally as well as internationally over the high-powered years said when the locals arrived in Trinidad, they discovered that Trinidad only had proper ammunition for the team shoot over the short range and it was very old ammunition “about 25 years old and the other regional teams rejected it”.

So there was a change in the entire programme, instead of shooting the individual shoot before the team shoot, we were made to shoot the team shoot first then the individual.”

He further explained that a team made of rifle shooters from the Middlesex/London Rifle Association were on a tour of Trinidad at the time and they put up a trophy which was contested by four-member teams from the Region and Trinidad won that trophy, beating Guyana by a single point.

However, for the Caribbean Short Range championship, Guyana’s eight-member team came out on top, retaining the title they won in Jamaica last year.

Guyana amassed 1 139 points with 105 V-Bulls (1 139:105), while Trinidad placed second with 1 134:99, Jamaica third with 1 134:85, Antigua fourth with 1 075:78 and Barbados ended in the cellar with 1 076:73.

He said it was after the short range shoot that the problem began to take its toll on the visiting teams as they were made to shoot for the individual prizes with the poor quality ammunition.

According to the former Inspector of Police, himself and team captain Mahendra Persaud, along with Jamaica’s John Nelson and a few other senior shooters from other Caribbean countries decided not to participate because of the poor quality of the ammunition.

Asked why the Trinidad association could not have provided top quality ammunition, when they knew more than a year ago that they would be hosting this year’s championship, Goodluck said “They had tremendous excuses for the ammunition, but none was plausible.

“One time they said they had no money to purchase quality ammunition and another time they said they got the money late and because Trinidad was hosting the Summit of the Americas, the whole country was shut down so they could not have gotten the paper work completed on time to import the ammunition.”

Goodluck reasoned that “other host countries had problems in the past, but never to this magnitude. Since 1997 the West Indies Fullbore Council made a ruling that no championship will be held without quality ammunition, and if other Caribbean countries were made aware of the ammunition problem, they could have solved it since Jamaica and Antigua had proper ammunition and were willing to loan the Trinidad Association, but it was all poor communication.”

According to Goodluck, the individual championship was won by Trinidad’s Carl Awong and the Guyanese who participated in this shoot were Dane Blair, Ryan Sampson, Dylan and Richard Fields, Claude Duguid, Terrence Stuart, Sigmond Douglas, John Fraser, Derek Naraine and Charles Dean.

“They basically took part to gain experience, solve problems with their equipment and basically to have fun,” Goodluck stated.

Reminded about the West Indies Fullbore Council ruling on poor quality ammunition and asked if he considers himself the reigning individual champion, Goodluck said technically he is not, “but it is not an issue for me or the others who did not participate in it.”

Asked how many times Guyana won the short range title, Goodluck said Guyana has won the title for more years than he can remember and only remembers losing it (title) in 2006 when Barbados won the championship.

Guyana is also the reigning long range title holders. However, this title was not contested this year, as Trinidad does not have a long range.

With regards the `O’ Class championship, Goodluck said the Trinidadian officials combined the whole package, but for the Grand Aggregate, no one was separated as they (Trinidad authorities) made “one list which is not normal as well.

What happened is bad shooters got good scores and good shooters got bad scores and this is because of the quality of ammunition used.”

He said at one stage (last Friday) the locals as well as the other Caribbean shooters had wanted to return to their respective countries, but after taking into consideration that they would have to pay extra on their airline ticket, they decided to stay for the duration of the championships.

“At the end of the day, the entire shooting fraternity look forward to meeting each other at this time of the year just to keep the friendship that prevails,” Goodluck informed.

Asked what is in store for the local rifle shooters for the remainder of the year, Goodluck said later this year there will be the Annual Bisley Champinship in England but to date, only Persaud is certain of taking part as the others including himself, is hard-pressed for cash.

He said it would cost each rifle shooter in the vicinity of Guy$600 000 to participate at Bisley and he has no source whereby he can accumulate that sum. This he said is faced by the others as well.

He said the Bisley Championship is used by marksmen worldwide as a warm-up for the Commonwealth Games which will be held in India next year.

“The airfare and entrance fee for the Bisley are the most important components of getting to the Bisley which would be held in July and the deadline for registration is mid next month,” Goodluck lamented.