Former national shotgun champion Christian Sasso and in-form female shooter Aliana McMaster were in top form recently when they defeated Master Class shooters in the Jack Links Cup and the Zoli Cup, respectively, in Florida.

Sasso emerged the victor in a shoot-off with USA Master Class shooters Joseph Fanizzi (USA) and Bill McGuire (USA) after all three were deadlocked in a three-way tie in Jack Links Cup at Quail Creek Sporting Ranch.

Naturally, he was ecstatic about his performance. "I would like to thank the sponsors who helped me to compete in the Jack Links Cup tournament in Florida, Sasco Distributors, Azan Super Centre and Issa Construction - they all played an integral part of my success that took place over the competition," he said.

"Right now I am ecstatic. I always try to do my best but to place in Master Class Fitasc, after a shoot-off with Joseph Fanizzi and Bill McGuire, two giants in the sport, I couldn't be any happier with the results. As you know Fitasc is only one category of many in the tournament. Right now my shooting scores are in line with the pros.

"I believe that with more international tournaments to come and exposure to different targets, I can consistently produce a first, second or third place."

He also congratulated his Jamaican colleagues who also competed.

"I would like to congratulate all the Jamaicans who participated and placed in the tournament. I will start with Aliana McMaster, who is a junior excelling in the sport as basically a newcomer, Roman Tavares-Finson, who shot exceptionally well, Zachary Chin, Jonathan Ralston, who is a junior producing good scores right now; Isaac Mair, Chad Zaidie, Shaun and Marc Barnes, Edward Zacca, Paul Burke, Wendy McMaster, John Desnoes, Gordon Bucknor (and) Lenin Thompson.

“All of these persons did extremely well in their respective classes, and I would just like to big up all of them and big up team Jamaica."

Shaun Barnes, a six-time national shotgun champion topped the AA Class preliminaries with a score of 83 and the AA Class Fitasc (86).

Roman Tavares-Finson won the AA Class in 5-Stand after scoring 93 while Chad Zaidie topped the Main Event with a score of 172. Young Jonathan Ralston bagged first place in a number of disciplines namely, A Class Thursday Prelims - 81, A Class Fitasc - 85 and A-Class Super Sporting - 42.

 In the Zoli Classic at the South Florida Shooting Club, there were outstanding performances from Aliana McMaster, Chad Ziadie, Richard Todd and Brandon Laing.

McMaster was the number one female performer for Jamaica after topping the D Class - 87 in the Thursday Prelims, Friday Prelims - 83 and 5-Stand - 85.  She is the first Jamaican female shooter to win a class in any overseas shooting competition under the Jamaica Skeet Club banner. She bagged 10 trophies in the tournament.

"My performance overall between the overseas shoots so far has been my best performance I could have put out there. I didn't feel like I left anything out there,” she said.

“I couldn't have done more. All I learnt is knowledge and experience and just a feeling of accomplishment and also dealing with disappointment and different aspects of things I need to learn about myself when shooting in foreign and I couldn't have asked for a better result or game."

Meanwhile, Chad Ziadie won four AA Class categories with scores of - Thursday Prelims - 95, Friday Prelims - 86, Fitasc - 80 and Super Sporting - 44.