Jamaica made a valiant attempt at defending the West Indies Full Bore Shooting Championship at the Crabbs Range in Antigua & Barbuda last week, but it was not to be as they lost ground and ended up in third place behind Guyana and host country Antigua & Barbuda.
The eight-member team scores were 1119.61 for Guyana, 1099.53 for Antigua & Barbuda and 1028.41 for Jamaica, who narrowly defeated Barbados, who scored 1028.34.
Guyana was dominant from the first range at 300 yards and continued its dominance at 500 and 600 yards.
Guyana’s Peter Persaud walked away with the Wogarth Cup after shooting 147.10 out of a possible 150. The Wogarth Cup winner is the shooter who scores the highest total for all three ranges in the team event. Captain Dwayne Ford of Jamaica won the title last year.
All was not lost though as Jamaica’s National Full Bore Champion Nicola Guy copped her first Amazon Cup for being the top female shooter in the championship. Her overall score for the individual aspect of the championship which ran over three days was 435.19. Additionally, she topped the table for Team Jamaica while finishing 10th overall.
Guy battled the conditions to her advantage. “Antigua has been a unique experience for me because of all the places that I have shot before Antigua by far has the most tricky conditions in terms of wind and so on, but it was great,” she said.
“Things were up and down basically over the days. I had mixed results. Some banks were bad, especially the 500 yards. I really kind of picked up over time, (and) started to understand the conditions in Antigua and ultimately won the Amazon Cup.”
She was happy at the end. “It’s a great feeling when you are competing with the greats like (Lennox) Brathwaite and Major Nelson and so on to actually be 10th overall and seventh in the region and number one female. I am happy I could be of service to my country in such a way and to satisfy myself, feeling accomplished. There is more to come. I am aiming to be top aggregate winner for the next competition. We have some time because the next competition is gonna be in Guyana in October, so I get some time to train. I hope to continue to do well.”
Former two-time Amazon Cup winner Karen Anderson placed 11th in the individual competition with a score of 432.21.
Lennox Brathwaite of Guyana secured the Grand Aggregate title with a score of 467.41. The grand aggregate title goes to the shooter who scores the highest total score over the three days of the individual event.
Team Jamaica was led by Captain Phillip Scott and included the current National Full Bore Champion Nicola Guy. She is the first female national champion in Full Bore. The other female team member was two-time Amazon trophy winner and O Class champion Karen Anderson.
Major John Nelson, president of the West Indies Full Bore Shooting Council and five-time Wogarth Cup winner along with last year’s Wogarth Cup winner Dwayne Ford. The team was completed by Canute ‘CC’ Coley, Dennis Lee and Dr. Derek Mitchell, while George Hutton was the team manager.
