The last member of Jamaica’s nine-member team departed the island on Monday for the World English Sporting Clay Championship set to commence at the E.J. Churchill Shooting Ground in England on Wednesday, July 5 and end on Saturday, July 8.

Jamaica had its best results in 2022 when the women’s team finished third and the men’s came fourth, marking the first time that a team from the island took a spot on the podium.

The women’s team is comprised of national shotgun champion Wendy McMaster, Aliana McMaster and Abigail McMaster, who are hoping to at least equal their third-place finish.

Craig Simpson (captain), Ryan Chen (vice-captain), Ray McMaster, Robert Yap-Foo, Gordon Bucknor and Lennin Thompson, make up the men’s team.

The team is a mixture of experience and new members with Simpson, who has been competing in the championship since the early 2000s, being the most experienced.

“We are enthusiastic to be attending this prestigious event. My job as captain is to motivate my teammates while keeping them composed,” Simpson said.

“This trip is about gaining international exposure and knowledge of where the sport is at on the European continent and how we can get Jamaica to a higher level of competitiveness. The fraternity is excited to have us in attendance and our participation alone is a win for Jamaica."

Sponsors Proven, Hawkeye, Coldwell Bankers, National Bakery, Ammar's and BarePelt are backing the Jamaicans, who will be going up against teams from the USA, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Mexico, Italy and Sweden.

Craig Simpson and Wendy McMaster toppled defending champions Nicholas Chen and Aliana McMaster to take the top spots at the recent Rangers Gun Club Sporting Clays Classic on at the Tru-Juice complex in Bog Walk, St. Catherine.

Simpson posted his highest-ever sporting clays score with an almost perfect scorecard of 97 out of a possible 100, after dropping just one bird each on stations two, four and fourteen.

"All year, it’s been a tough year. Been struggling with a lot of things mentally, technique, all of those things but, as usual, kept at it and everything came together,” said Simpson.

“It was 18 stations; first we have ever seen that here. The targets were technical even though there was something there for everybody. It was all about who was able to maintain the focus and I knew that.”

Roman Tavares-Finson's 95 earned him the runner-up spot.

Wendy McMaster scored 82 to win the Ladies category ahead of her main challenger, her daughter Aliana. She said the secret to her win was staying out of the heat, keeping hydrated and sticking to the game plan by focusing on her shooting only while on the course.

"I am very happy. I had a good day shooting the targets. I found a secret last week and I tried it out today and it really worked well so I am really happy that I ended up in the eighties."

Aliana was just three shots back on 79 in second place while Lori Ann Harris was third with a score of 77

The top three shooters in the various classes are as follows: A Class: Chad Ziadie 94, Christian Sasso 93 (L/R), Ian Banks 93 (L/R); B Class: Najeeb Haber 87, Brandon King 82, Aliana McMaster 79; C Class: Ramon Pitter 83 (S/O), Ricky DuQuesnay 83 (S/O), Eddie Depass 83; D Class: Zachary Chin 87, Justin Samuda 85, Kashka Jones 80; E Class: Lenin Thompson 81, Max Williams 80 (L/R), Luke Chin 80 (L/R); Hunters or Beginners: Lori Ann Harris 77, Stephen Silvera 75, Leanne McMaster 74; Ladies: Wendy McMaster 82, Aliana McMaster 79, Lori Ann Harris 77; Juniors: Roman Tavares-Finson 95, David Wong 89, Mark Desnoes 87.

Team Jamaica will leave the island on Sunday (May 7) to defend their West Indies Full Bore Shooting Championship in Antigua & Barbuda between May 8-14 at the Crabb's Range.

The team to be led by Captain Phillip Scott will include the current national Full-Bore champion Nicola Guy, Jamaica’s first female national champion. Also on the team is two-time Amazon trophy winner and O Class champion Karen Anderson.

 Major John Nelson, the president of the West Indies Full Bore Shooting Council and five-time Wogarth Cup winner, reigning Wogarth Cup winner, Captain Dwayne Ford, Canute CC Coley, Dennis Lee and Dr. Derek Mitchell complete the line-up.

George Hutton will serve as team manager.

Full Bore competition features competitors shooting from a prone position from distances of 300, 500,  600, 900 and 1,000 yards. Notably only Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica have 900-yard and 1,000-yard courses.

Shooters compete in three possible classes. X Class comprise the top 15-20 shooters in the Caribbean. T Class is any shooter participating in a regional shoot for the first time. Everyone else is in O Class.

Jamaica is considered to be a power house in Full Bore Shooting having won several championships and is always on the podium.

The Amazon trophy is awarded to the highest-scoring female while Wogarth Cup is awarded to the shooter who has the highest score in the team match.

Defending champions Nicholas Chen and Aliana McMaster are ready to defend their titles at the Rangers Gun Club and Family Fun Day which is set for Sunday, May 7 beginning at 10 am at the True Juice complex in Bog Walk, St. Catherine. 

The Rangers Gun Club is expecting a field of approximately one hundred and fifty shooters along with family members to trek the lush walking course venue for a day of individual and team competition featuring the local gun clubs. 

For the second year in a row four clubs will compete for the trophy; Driftwood Gun Club, Jamaica Gun Club, Rangers Gun Club and defending champions, the Trelawny Gun Club. 

Competition for top honors will be stiff as some of the Jamaica Skeet Club's best shooters will be vying for top honors. They include nine-time national shotgun champion Ian Banks, six-time national shotgun champion Shaun Barnes, current national shotgun champion Chad Ziadie, his father Geoffrey Ziadie, Ray McMaster, Andrew Hopwood, Ryan Chen and Bobby Chung as well as the high performance family team of female McMasters - Aliana, Wendy (five-time national shotgun champion) and Abigail along with other well known female shooters in Renee Rickhi, who is part of the Jamaica Rifle Association's Alpha Angels lady shooters, Marguerite Harris and Tara Brown. 

Shooters in various classes from A- E, Hunters or Beginners, Juniors, Sub-Juniors, and Ladies will be competing in order to win their classes and, in some cases, move up to more challenging classes. The course features a seventeen-station walking course. 

Part proceeds from the event will be donated to the Food for the Poor organization. 

The lead sponsor for the Rangers Gun Club Sporting Clays and Family Day is Sterling Asset Management. Worthy Park Select is the gold sponsor and there are several 'station' sponsors. 

The club has rich a history of young business men and some of their fathers who loved shooting getting together in the mid 1980s to start the Rangers Gun Club at their Salt Gully base in St. Catherine. 

They initially focused on bird shooting then took on sporting clays which is currently the most popular form of the sport and is said to be the favorite of the younger shooters. The tournament is being brought back by on their request.  The club's archives show that Michael Ammar, John Ammar, David Shoucair and Wayne Srour took the leap with Michael Ammar Sr., Sameer Younis and Dr. Badih Shoucair to start the club.

Jamaica's top shooters came out on top of their Caribbean rivals in last Saturday's Spectrum Handgun Championship held at Jamaica Rifle Association’s Mountain View shooting range in Kingston.

The home shooters topped all four divisions with Ryan Bramwell emerging the victor in Open Division, Andrew Yap taking the Standard Division and Chris Hart winning the Production Optics Division. Yeonie Campbell captured the Production Division.

Bramwell put on a master-class display of speed and accuracy to earn 1059.57 points, firing 215 rounds in 130.70 seconds over the 12-stage course.

Alrice Palmer scored 949.3 points to claim the runner-up spot while Lennie Moulton scored 879.76 points for third place.

"It was a great day. I shot very well. I was very fast and aggressive today (Saturday) and I had very good hits so overall I came out the winner,” the victorious Bramwell said.

“It’s a great feeling. Having put in the work and gotten the results, it’s fantastic and we go back to the drawing board and keep training."

Campbell copped the Production Division and topped the Ladies Category. In the Production Division she got the better of Anthony Johnson in a nail biter with just one point separating them while Rohan Wallace was third.

In the Ladies Category she was comfortably ahead of second place Florence Golding and third place Philana Brown.

"My performance today was okay. I think that the stages were very challenging as well as they allow you to express yourself so I was pleased with my performance," Campbell said.

“The ladies did very well today, exceptionally well today. I am very proud of them. I think that we all competed admirably today and the results showed it."

There was keen competition in the Standard Division which went to Master Class shooter Yap, who scored more than one hundred points more than of Darin Richards and Lennie Moulton who were second and third, respectively.

 The Production Optics Division went to Chris Hart ahead of Adrian Randle and Michael Bradshaw who took third place.

One overseas-based shooter got on the podium with Richard Durrant of Barbados getting second place in the Senior Category of the Standard Division behind Ellsworth Dixon while Thomas Jones was third.

Durrant commended the Jamaican shooters.

"The quality of shooting here is really high. I had some hope of placing on the podium. The last time I was in Jamaica was in 2018 and since that time the standard has really, really sky-rocketed,” he said.

“Andy Yap and Greg Henry, I shot against them before but today it was a different level. I have to go back to the lab now so I have to recalculate my shooting. The experience was really good. I would come again."

Major John Nelson, president of JRA was pleased with the overall standard of the competition.

"It’s a Level 3, which, is in fact the highest match we have had now for about four years. It is such a highly respected match that we had international shooters from the Cayman Islands, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago,” he said.

“It was attractive enough for them to be here. We had the highest turnout of our local shooters including our shooters from Trelawny, Negril and May Pen, who came in to compete in this particular shoot.

“Spectrum Systems have outdone themselves and as Mr. (Andrew) Stanigar said to me at the end of the presentations, you are not getting rid of us we are here to stay with you and support you."

Seventy-three of the Caribbean’s best shooters are set to battle for honours at the Spectrum Handgun Championship set for the Jamaica Rifle Association’s shooting range on Mountain View Avenue in Kingston, Jamaica on Saturday, April 29.

Shooters from Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and the Cayman Islands will be competing at the Level III IPSC event, Jamaica’s first major international pistol match and highest-ranked competition to be staged since the Covid-19 pandemic emerged in 2020.

"Everyone is looking forward with great anticipation to the upcoming Spectrum Handgun Championship 2023 at the JRA,” said Match Director Paul Shoucair.

“We'll have all of Jamaica's top shooters versus top shooters from other islands in the Caribbean and the Ladies Division is looking pretty hot so looking forward to it and expecting some great stages."

The top gunners will compete in four divisions - Open, Standard, Production Optics and Production, which features the use of unmodified guns. The breakdown of the entry list shows eight overseas based shooters, eight female shooters and 57 local based male shooters are down to compete.

Among them is top-ranked master class shooter Ryan Bramwell.

"This match will in effect be a Caribbean championship and I am looking forward to competing against the best local and regional talent,” he said.

“The match itself promises to be a great event and I am really looking forward to doing my best on Saturday."

Among the other shooters vying for honours across the various divisions are Master Shooter Andy Yap and Darin Richards, and among the women, Alpha Angels Yeonie Campbell, Shayon Francis and Renee Rickhi.

 Competition on the twelve-stage range will get underway at 10:00 am.

Jamaica's Practical Pistol shooters were in impressive at the recently concluded Florida Open Pistol Shooting Tournament in Fostproof, Florida.

Despite going up against more than 200 shooters that included Grand Master from 12 countries from the Americas, Europe and the Caribbean, the local team overcame the odds to win several awards.

Ryan Bramwell, one of Jamaica's Master Class shooters was the runner-up in the Carry Optics Division (Master Class). Pistol captain Alrice Palmer walked away with first place in the B Class category while Thomas Hall finished third in C Class while Adrian Randle was fourth in A class.

Ekpedeme Otoukon was awarded second place in the Senior category.

"I am really proud of my team's achievement. Based on the growth and development of the male and female members of this team and the club, I am seeing where we will have several Master Class shooters in the near future," said Bramwell, who was the only Master Class shooter on the team.

Jamaica pulled off a sweep in the Men’s Limited Division B Class in which Darin Richards finished first, Owen Campbell second and Ellesworth Dixon was third. Campbell also finished first in the Senior Category of his division.

Jamaica was also represented in the Open and Production Division where Bernard Lawrence (Open Division) and Sanjay Welsh (Production Division) were equally impressive, copping third place in C Class and second place in B Class, respectively.

The two Alpha Angels female shooters on tour were not to be outdone as Constable Shayon Francis was on target winning the Carry Optics C Class and was second in the Carry Optics Lady Category while team captain Detective Corporal Sasha-Gay Mullings finished in third place.

"The match was a very good one. The shooting stages were fun and I'm really happy with my performance and by extension my team's performance,” Francis said.

“We could have even done better, however, some of our members had equipment malfunction and we dropped some points on those stages but our team did exceptionally well nonetheless."

Meanwhile, Evan Medley who placed fourth in the Production Division and Keith Miller were among the range officers who officiated the match.

Nicholas Benjamin and Aliana McMaster out-shot more than 150 competitors on Sunday (February 12) to be crowned Highest Overall Champion and Ladies Champion, respectively, at the first Jackson Bay Hunting & Fishing Club Sporting Clay tournament in Clarendon in 25 years.

Benjamin was the only shooter to score in the 90s after shooting 90 and picking off all six targets on eight of the 17 stations on the course.

McMaster shot 78 to win the Ladies section ahead of Wendy McMaster 77 but had to engage Kashka Jones in a shoot-off to determine the Junior champion after Jones also shot 78.

Benjamin said afterwards that the challenging conditions made the victory sweeter.

"I am very humbled, very happy about the win today. It wasn't easy,” he said.

“The course itself was fair. It was not an overly difficult course but that combined with the conditions - it was very hot, it was very windy, wasn't any shade. The wind plays a big part in the course itself and all of those things put together made for not an overly difficult but a not very easy day.

“It's the first time I have shot by the sea as well. I think, more impactful than the ocean was the sea breeze. I think that made it harder than just the sea as the background."

Three shooters were engaged in a shoot-off to determine the runner-up and A Class champion after they all shot 89 in regulation time.

Shaun Barnes shot a perfect eight from eight to take the runner-up spot while last year's national shotgun champion Chad Ziadie scored seven form eight for the A Class first and Bruce DeQuesnay bagged six for A Class runner up.

Ray McMaster was third by way of 'long run' ahead of Ian Banks and Christian Sasso after they each shot 88.

McMaster and Jones had to shoot three rounds before a victor would emerge.

Both shot seven and six, respectively, in the first and second rounds but McMaster shot a perfect eight from eight in the third round to Jones' six. 

“I enjoyed shooting the course and going through the different stations and observing the different presentations,” said McMaster afterwards, “however, I experienced a lot of challenges today; outside variables like traps breaking down or the walking with the sun or whatever it was, it was basically all coming at me at once so it was quite a difficult time but I pushed through."

She said experience helped her during the shoot-off.

 "Going into a shoot-off, I have an idea from experience of what to do and what not to do,” she said.

“You just try to keep to yourself, you ignore every possible thing except the task at hand. It was a really good experience because no matter how experienced you are, you are still going get the nerves so it’s really nice I can experience that again. To come out the winner, honestly, it feels really great."

The following are the the top three shooters in each class:  A Class: Chad Ziadie 89 (S/O), Bruce DuQuesnay 89(S/O), Ray McMaster 88 (L/R)

B Class: Michael Banbury 83, Najeeb Haber 78 (L/R), Brandon King 78 (L/R)

C Class: Ramon Pitter 83, Ricky DuQuesnay 81, Wendy McMaster 77

D Class: Matthew Sale 76, Marlon King 75, Noah Vaughn 74

E Class: Kashka Jones 78, Matthew Morin 69, Carlton Davis 68

Hunters or Beginners: Daren Gordon 79, Tariq Nembhard 77 and Andrew Clarke 72

Ladies: Aliana McMaster 78, Wendy McMaster 77, Lori Ann Harris 75

Juniors: Aliana McMaster 78 (S/O), Kashka Jones 78 (S/O), Lori Anne Harris 75

Sub Juniors: Che Rowe 61, Craig Powel Jr. 56 and Adam Clacken 51

Hunters or Beginners: Seymour Essor 75 (S/O), Lori Anne Harris 75 (S/O), Max Williams 71.

Two time defending champions Craig Simpson and Aliana McMaster are ready to drop a 'three-peat' in the Proven David East Memorial Sporting Clays Challenge organized by the Driftwood Gun Club. 

The shoot will be held at the picturesque Murphy Hill Estate over-looking the town of Ocho Rios on Sunday with a 9:30 am shotgun start. 

It kicks off the first sporting clays shoot of the year for the Jamaica Skeet Club, which has robust calendar for 2023. 

Simpson will have to battle over 100 competitors including three-time national shotgun champion Christian Sasso, who he got the better of by way of long-run in 2021, six-time national shotgun champion Shaun Barnes and nine-time national shotgun champion and current president Ian Banks as well as the very consistent Ray McMaster and Robert Yap Foo among others. 

The Ladies section will be also be competitive as well with McMaster expecting to be challenged by her mother, five-time national shotgun champion Wendy McMaster, former national shotgun champion Marguerite Harris and a number of very good lady shooters. 

The shooters will compete in various classes including A to E, Juniors, Sub-Juniors, Ladies and Hunters or beginners. 

All the shooters are looking forward to this year's event which will be the first one which does not feature Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. It is expected that there will be on-course hospitality and lunch post- competition as well as the very popular prize giving and camaraderie among the competitors and members of the Jamaica Skeet Club. 

The proceeds of the tournament will be used for the Driftwood Gun Club’s charities which are dominated by educational support in the Treasure Beach area in the parish of St. Elizabeth. 

The club president, Christina East was happy to have Proven on board for the third consecutive year as title sponsor. She credited David East who passed away in 2020 with playing a pivotal in securing the venue as the home of the club's annual competition. East was a visionary club member who only wanted the best for sporting clays in Jamaica, hence the competition was named in his honour.

Nicola Guy prevailed in a fiercely fought battle to claim her first national full bore/target rifle shooting title at the recently concluded Jamaica Rifle Association National Championship which was contested at the Jamaica Defence Force Twickenham Park Range, in St Catherine, Jamaica.

 On the opening day, Guy earned 145.10 points to finish a breath behind 2019 champion, Denis Lee at 145.11 and ahead of two-time defending champion, Captain Dwayne Ford who had 143.6.

  On day two the in-form lady marksman, threw down the gauntlet by shooting 49.5 out of 50 points in the first event which was 10 shots at 500 yards.

 Although Major John Nelson was able to replicate that score in the first event, Guy cemented her opener with 47.4 out of 50 at 600 yards in the second event, a score only bested by Karen Anderson who shot 48.3.

 However, Guy’s consistency paid off when at 900 yards she shot 61.3 out of 75 points which kept her ahead with an overall tally of 302.22, which enabled her to claim the title.

 Anderson shot 65.4 to amass 299.21 points and take second place overall.

 Claude Russell shot 68.3 to win the 900-yard bank and finish with 298.18 which earned him the third spot on podium.

 Ford was fourth with 298.11, Nelson placed fifth with 297.15, while Lee finished sixth with 296.22, in seventh place was Dr. Derek Mitchell – O Class Champion with 236.5 and eighth was Phillip Scott with 233.8 points to round out the top eight.

Jamaica Defence Force Captain Dwayne Ford dethroned Guyana’s Lennox Brathwaite to win the Wogarth Cup as Jamaica won the Team Match by the smallest of margins as the West Indies Full Bore Shooting Council Championship came to an exciting climax at Twickenham Park on Saturday.

Jamaica’s eight-member team were forced to dig deep to hold off a hard-charging Guyana which made the victory satisfying for Jamaica Rifle Association Vice-President Karen Anderson, who was also a member of the winning team.

"Jamaica is positively thrilled to have won the West Indies Cup team match on home soil and defeating Guyana in the process," she said.

"It has been a long slog in trying to beat them over the years and to do it on home soil, in particular, after a really tough tournament. We showed a great level of consistency. There might have been some doubt after the long-range team match the day before where we finished last but it bodes well for the team's confidence how we managed to end the tournament and win that particular cup."

She also reserved special praise for team leader, Captain Ford.

"It is even more heartening when you see Dwayne Ford win the Wogarth Cup which is a tremendous achievement in defeating Lennox Brathwaite, who is a seven-time Wogarth winner. We are on a high and we are just going to build on this going into next year's competition."

Captain Ford, a recently crowned O-Class champion, led his team by example. He and teammate Nicola Guy shot impressively at 300 yards, each scoring perfect scores of 50.4 to give Jamaica an early five-point lead. The home team scored 373.23 over its nearest rivals Antigua and Barbuda with Guyana on 360.16.

Jamaica extended its lead after 500 yards with a score of 379.20 but Guyana eventually narrowed the gap and claimed victory with a score 383.23.

Braithwaite answered the call at 500 yard with score of 50.3 that would prove pivotal at the final range as he and Ford battled for the Wogarth Cup that goes to the top-scoring shooter in the West Indies Cup.

At 600 yards, Jamaica dropped 10 points early on and found themselves in a major shoot-out with Guyana. However, the shooters managed to steel themselves and recovered to score 1114.58 to hold off Guyana who shot a 1113.63. 

In the end, Ford defeated the seven-time champion Brathwaite by 0.1 to take the Wogarth Cup.

Chad Ziadie and Wendy McMaster emerged winners of the recent National Shotgun Champions (NSC) held at the Grand Port Royal Hotel.

Outstanding shooting from their eight-man Long Range Team team helped Guyana land the Milex Cup at the 2022 West Indies Full Bore Championships currently underway at Twickenham Park in Jamaica on Friday.

The shooters from South America aiming at targets at 900 yards were the only team to score over 700 out of a possible 800, with a total of 715.35 to take the title over Canada (682.32), Antigua & Barbuda (655.22). Hosts Jamaica finished fourth with a combined score of 652.16.

Four of their shooters score higher than 90 points during the competition - Sherwin Felicien shot 93.3, Roberto Tewari, 92.7, Peter Persaud, 91.5 and Dylan Fields 90.6 – as Guyana dominated the competition.

However, the best shooter on the day was Antigua & Barbuda’s Anderson Perry who scored 49.1 on the first detail and 48.2 on the second for a combined score of 97.3 out of a possible 100. His teammate Christopher Joseph was also excellent with a score of 96.6.

Karen Anderson was Jamaica’s top shooter with her score of 88.3.

Guyana will go for the sweep on Saturday in the Short Range Match at 300/500/600 yards in which Lennox Brathwaite is defending champion in the Wogarth Cup.

Multiple-time winner Lennox Braithwaite of Guyana won the Grand Aggregate in the individual event at the 2022 West Indies Full Bore Shooting Championships on Thursday. The championship is being held at Twickenham Park in St. Catherine, Jamaica.

Brathwaite, who lamented the pandemic-induced relative lack of preparation coming into the tournament, won with a score of 467.39 out of a possible 480 points. He defeated Emmanuel Gauvin and Avtar Nanrey of Canada as well as compatriots Sherwin Felicien and Ransford Goodluck, who finished in the top five.

Guyana had five shooters in the top 10.

Jamaica’s national champion Dwayne Forde scored 449.30 to finished seventh while Karen Anderson was 17th.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Jordan-Cousins of Barbados scored 436.20 while out-dueling Anderson (435.25) to win the Amazon trophy which goes to the top female shooter. Women shoot against the males on the same targets and use same equipment in the competition.

The competition continued on Friday, October 28, with the team event which comprises a short-range and long range component.

The long-range team match, for the Milex Cup, began on Friday and will be followed by the short-range (300m/500m/600m) team match for the Wogarth Cup.

Braithwaite is the defending champion. The short range team match is Saturday, October 29.

Forty shooters from across the Caribbean are in Jamaica for the 2022 West Indies Full Bore Shooting Council Championships set to run from October 24 - 29 at the Twickenham Park range in St Catherine following a two-year hiatus because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The best shooters from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Canada, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago will be vying to claim the title held by Trinidad and Tobago when the tournament was last held in 2019. However, there will likely be a new champion as the twin-island republic has sent only one shooter to the tournament this year. Barbados, too, has sent a single shooter.

The six-country championship will feature shooters aiming at targets from a minimum of 300 to a maximum of a 1000 yards.

Guyanese Lennox Braithwaite, Wogarth Cup champion, is back to defend his title having had the highest score in the short-range team match last time out. However, he admitted to Sportsmax.TV that his confidence is not where it should be going into competition.

“As a sportsman we try our best to prepare ourselves but there were two years of not shooting and so the kind of preparation that we would have liked we have not been able to on the outdoors but on the indoors, we would have done some of the exercises that would keep the muscle memory,” he said, but in terms of reading the weather conditions and so on for two years we would have been off.

“I am not so confident because I would guess that all the other teams maybe going through similar or had a better position in preparing. In Guyana, we hadn’t had the use of the ranges until about a month ago, so we had some challenges there.”

Notwithstanding the challenges, Brathwaite said he plans to offer a stern defense of his title.

“I would want to defend that position but at the same time I have to realistic because there are people who want to win also.”

He pointed out the shooters from Antigua and the host country as those he has to be wary of. “Nobody wants to lose at home,” he said laughingly.

Indeed, Jamaica would not want to lose at home and as such have fielded a strong team led by Phillip Scott and that includes national champion Dwayne Forde, who has been deemed a ‘definite contender’ for the individual title.

The team also comprises Karen Anderson, Denis John Nelson, David Rickman, Denis Lee, Claude Russell, Nicola Guy, Jose Nunez and Canute CC Coley.