West Indies Fullbore Rifle Shooting C/ships – Individuals Braithwaite retains title as king of the Caribbean Ranges; Serge wins overall

May 09, 2014 Sports

By Franklin Wilson in Jamaica
Compliments of Queensway, Fazia’s Collection,
Crown Mining Supply and Fitness Express

The Caribbean’s top Individual marksman, Guyanese Lennox Braithwaite retained his billing as the best when the Individual Championships of the West Indies Fullbore Rifle Shooting Association ended yesterday afternoon at the Twickenham Ranges, Jamaica.
Starting the day with a s slim lead, Braithwaite maintained the advantage until the final range (1000) when he was overtaken by Canadian Serge Bissonnette who won overall by a single point, Bissonnette was behind the Guyanese champion {Braithwaite} also by one point going into the final range.

Lennox Braithwaite in action at the 1000 yards range yesterday in Jamaica.

Caribbean Individual Shooting King, Lennox Braithwaite (left) is being congratulated by National Captain Mahendra Persaud after he completed the 1000 yard range yesterday.

Sigmund Douglas

Leo Ramalho00

The difference came at the final range which saw Bissonnette achieving a score of 45 1V to Braithwaite’s 43 3Vs.
Braithwaite in an invited comment said that he was very happy to have retained the title following some torrid days at the ranges. He said conditions were very challenging for all the shooters but gave thanks to God for allowing him to retain the crown.
Rain again intervened at the lunch break yesterday and the organisers were forced to reduce the number of shots that were agreed to at the 1000 yards range from 15 to 10 in order to complete the final two ranges, 900 and 1000.
Rain had cut short day two after only two of the three ranges were completed and was threatening again yesterday but eventually stopped after the shooters re-started in a light drizzle. The sunshine eventually returned in all its glory midway of shooting in the first detail as the Individual championships ended in a blaze of sunshine.
The O Class category was won by female Jamaican markswoman Karen Anderson who was also a national squash player and very good friend of Guyana’s squash Queen, Nicolette Fernandes.
The Guyanese duo of Sigmund Douglas and Leo Ramalho finished second and third in this category.
Jamaican Dwayne Ford was the winner of the T Class division which is for first timers with Guyanese Sherwin Felicien coming in second on debut.
Bissonnette also won the Long Range Aggregate, tying with Jamaican David Rickman (138 7Vs), Braithwaite (136 8Vs) finishing fifth, the Guyanese however won the Short Range Aggregate (247 16Vs) ahead of Bissonnette (246 16Vs).
On yesterday’s final day, Ransford Goodluck won the X Class 1000 yards range (48 3Vs), Jamaican Karen Anderson (46 2Vs) was the top shot in the O Class with fellow Jamaican Dwayne Ford taking the T Class (42 3Vs) category.
Taking the 900 yards was Trinidad and Tobago’s Joseph Ezekiel (48 6Vs), Guyana’s Leo Romahlo won the O Class (44 2Vs) with Jamaica’s Claude Russell (44 1V) winning the T class.
Topping the field at 600 yards was T&T’s Norris Gomez who achieved a possible (35 6Vs), Canada’s Scott Murray also achieved a possible (35 4Vs). Barbadian Willoughby King won the O Class (33 3Vs) with the T Class going to another Bajan, Hazley Benjamin (31 2Vs).
At 500 yards, the leading X Class shooter was T&T’s Michael Perez, who achieved a possible (50 4Vs), Ransford Goodluck (50 3Vs) and Jamaican David Rickman (50 1V) also shot possibles.
Aubrey Yee-Sang of Jamaica took the O Class (48 5Vs) with top honours in the T Class taken by his teammate, Wayne Ford (47 5Vs).