Although Covid-19 has halted regional and international tournaments, since May the Jamaica Rifle Association’s (JRA) practical-pistol squad have been staging monthly mega matches with marksman Ryan Bramwell dominating the competitions.
After three months of matches, the top local and regional shooter remains undefeated, taking the Standard Division as well as Overall title on each occasion despite fierce competition.
For the big matchup in May, Bramwell scored 425 points to finish way ahead of runner-up Anthony Johnson who tallied 330.823 and Chris Hart who was third with 329.010.
In June, Bramwell trounced the field again with 1142.708 points while Kevin Cheung was second with 1073.810 and Greg Henry scored 949.026 to take third. Then in July, Bramwell maintained his form to post 760.000 points and extend his streak while Darin Richards and Henry placed second and third, respectively, with 641.589 and 624.006 points.
“I have learned that the hallmark of a top performer is consistency, and while I know I don’t need to win every stage, I do want to win every match so I focus on consistency and thankfully I’ve been on a streak,” Bramwell said.
While the local landscape has always been competitive, 2020 has brought a heightened focus on home-field competitions as the pandemic forced a series of postponements including the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) Area 6 Championships which should have been held in March in Florida.
The highly anticipated International Practical Shooting Confederation’s (IPSC) World Shoot originally scheduled for November has also been postponed until next year.
In addition, Jamaica was set to play host to Caribbean and American shooters at the Jamaica Invitational Pistol Tournament (JIPT) over the Easter weekend in April, but the prestigious competition was called off due to restrictions on travel because of health and safety protocols.
“With travel now involving 14-day quarantines to invite shooters here or to travel to a tournament is not practical so we are focusing on local competitions,” Bramwell explained.
Although initially, the pandemic disrupted practise and tournament schedules, the pistol shooters soon integrated the recommended safety precautions into their match procedures in order to resume training and competing.
“To stay safe while we’re competing, we shoot in small groups to allow for social distancing and we are also rigorous about sanitising,” Bramwell explained. “Naturally, we were disappointed that some of the bigger tournaments we have been preparing for are not going to happen, but the local competition schedule is giving us a lot of motivation to keep training and keep improving