West Indies Fullbore Rifle Shooting Team C/ships...Defending champs Guyana banking on experience

West Indies Fullbore Rifle Shooting Team C/ships…Defending champs Guyana banking on experience

May 15, 2013 Sports

By Franklin Wilson in Barbados
With the conclusion of four days of competitive Individual shooting at the 2013 edition of the West Indies Fullbore Rifle Shooting Championships here at the Paragon Ranges, Christ Church Barbados, it is now down to the real battle today and tomorrow when the Team Matches will take centre stage.

Paul Slowe

Defending champions in both matches, Guyana, will be banking on the experience of its top shooters to see them defend the titles successfully starting with today’s Long Range matches, which will see competition at the 900 and 1000 Yards Ranges.
The Captain and Vice Captain, Mahendra Persaud (Coach) and Dylan Fields have been retained, the other members of the team are Lennox Braithwaite, Ransford Goodluck (Coach), Paul Slowe (Wind Coach), Dane Blair, Sigmund Douglas and Leo Ramalho.
Both Persaud and Slowe have said that while the team is an experienced one, things have been very challenging so far with the subtle changing winds and rain proving to be unpredictable which means that there will be no room for complacency.
Slowe commented: “We are looking forward to shooting well tomorrow (today) to retain the Long Range and then tomorrow (Thursday) we go to the real match which is the Short Range match. At the end of these matches I have the responsibility of selecting the West Indies team for the Australia match on Saturday.”
So far Slowe said that he has a fair idea as to the composition of the West Indies team but will not make it known until after the team matches. For now he will be focused on getting the best out of the defending champions.
“The boys will now have to go out and perform but the good thing is that we will now have the benefit of having a coach while shooting so that will make it a bit easier. Once we shoot to our potential I am confident that we will be victorious again.”
Persaud said that with the knowledge gained from the Individual competition it is a definite case where Guyana will have to depend on experience along with the available coaching.
“We just seem to have been losing shots left and right due to the winds but with good coaching we should be alright. We’ve not seen the results that we have expected in the Individuals but I think we’ll be fine with the coaches working together.”
“We would not be complacent, we know we have work to do, we will