Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
GNRA & Great Britain Rifle Team takes aim @ Timehri Rifle Ranges
-3 day individual & team c/ships starts today
By Franklin Wilson
They are regarded as the best Fullbore shooters in the world but would have lost to the undisputed Kings of the Range in the Caribbean – Guyana – in Jamaica in 1996.
We’re talking of the Great Britain Rifle Team which touched down at the Timehri International Airport last evening from Jamaica and will be taking aim at the Timehri Rifle Ranges from today against the Guyana National Rifle Association in a specially arranged Three-day Fullbore Shooting Championship.
The GNRA Team at yesterday’s presser from right, Secretary Ryan Sampson, PRO Troy Peters, VP & Coach Paul Slowe, Captain Mahendra Persaud, Treasurer Lt. Col Terrance Stuart and 2013 Champions Ransford Goodluck.
The 13-member Great Britain Team is on a Caribbean four-nation tour which will culminate in Barbados next month with the Australia Cup.
An opening ceremony is set for the 300 Yards Range at 13:00hrs where Commodore Gary Best is expected to deliver feature opening remarks and fire the first shot to signal the start of individual competition which is anticipated to be fierce at both the 300 and 900 yards ranges.
Tomorrow, individual competition will continue at the 500, 600 and 1000 Yards Ranges while on Thursday, the final day, the Team competition will take centre stage with each country providing two five-member teams. Guyana’s two teams will be picked following the conclusion of the individual championships tomorrow afternoon.
Team one will comprise the top five shooters from the individual meet with the other best five, constituting team two.
The Great Britain side also has a number of female shooters who will be also be competing.
No stones have been left unturned to ensure a successful competition according to the GNRA which hosted a Press briefing yesterday at Olympic House, High Street.
Team Coach Paul Slowe informed that the competition against the British is a build up to the Caribbean Championships in Barbados next month where Guyana will be defending the Short and Long Range titles.
“This is a highly anticipated tour but is a build up to Barbados where the British will also be to contest the Australia match. We expect to do good against this high powered team but we are not taking things lightly. We are prepared in terms of our training.”
Slowe, who has been named Captain of the 10-man West Indies Team that will contest the Australia match, said that Guyana’s preparation has been geared towards peaking in Barbados.
“We are at this stage prepared to make sure we do our best, we do not want to sell ourselves short and we will not be complacent, having dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s. These guys are coming from Jamaica and will go to Trinidad and Tobago before Barbados, so we want to make sure our logistical arrangements are top notch.”
The Guyanese are the undisputed champions of Fullbore shooting in the Caribbean having won five times in the last six years (2012 in Guyana); they narrowly lost the 2011 championships by 2 points in Antigua & Barbuda.
Fullbore Captain Mahendra Persaud in his remarks re-emphasized that the Great Britain team is very strong made up of world class shooters but Guyana can only do one thing, “Perform our best on the day.”
“We have five ranges to test our skills against theirs, one advantage we have and it is home turf. Hopefully it acts up as it has been doing for the last couple of months; the range has changed a lot and gotten more challenging but we have been getting the hang of it.”
Persaud also mentioned that while Guyana are the Caribbean champions and other countries see themselves shooting for second place, that’s not always the case since they can have off days and bad days also.
“Like what happened to us in Antigua a couple years ago. But all in all our preparations have been pretty ok. We would have preferred to shoot two four-man teams against the British but they have asked for two five man teams instead and we have obliged.”
The eight member Guyana team for Barbados will include USA based Sigmund Douglas.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Land, taxes and penalties
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News-The American humorist Will Rogers once remarked that the best investment on earth is earth... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
