FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Nickolai Clarke outshot opponents to emerge overall champion of the American International School of Kingston (AISK) SportsFeva Sporting Clays tournament at the Jamaica Skeet Club, Portmore yesterday.

Clarke’s explosive shooting prowess also assisted Hillel Academy to their fifth consecutive ClayFeva title as they finished with a total of 290 points. Campion College (110) and AISK (90) placed second and third, respectively.

Clarke shot an impressive 49 of his 50 targets to emerge high overall winner. He ended with an overall total of 59 hits after getting the better of Jake Therrien (58) and Aiden Ingledew (58), who made up a lot of ground with a display of sublime shooting skills in a super-six shoot-off. Therrien placed second after he defeated Ingledew in a shoot-off for the runners-up spots.

The diminutive shooter, who also emerged champion of the Digicel Inter-schools clay challenge last year, expressed sheer delight at the feat.

“The competition was more difficult than the Digicel Cup, but similar to that tournament, it took a lot of concentration and focus so I am really happy. It took a lot of hard work, so with every tournament that I shoot in I try to outdo myself, even if I only win my class,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Nicholas Chen, captain of the Hillel team, believes that the skills of the younger shooters speak volumes to the future of the sport.

“It feels great to successfully defend our title for a fifth straight year; we have a great set of shooters… a lot of young shooters are coming up who are improving every day. We have a lot of shooters under 12 who are shooting very well and for the future I think Hillel will keep on winning,” he said.

Meanwhile, Brad Ransom, sports director of AISK, told the Observer that the success of yesterday’s tournament may well have set the tone for the SoccerFeva and TennisFeva which will take place on Friday and Saturday.

“The tournament today was great; the whole team that came together and put it on from Khaleel (Azan) who does a fantastic job as always and the SportsFeva committee who came together as a group to execute the day just makes it run smoothly and that’s great for the spectators and athletes as well.

“Obviously now that this has gone so well, I hope the other two tournaments go as well. We will have a lot more athletes at those events so there is more in terms of logistics, but I think we are well prepared and hopefully they go off in the same vein,” he noted.

The course set by mentor Azan and Oniel Brown, was a bit more competitive than the shooters were accustomed to. However, the shooters ranging from age eight to 17, proved equal to the task with some dazzling scores.

Clarke’s score of 49 saw him topping the Juniors A class ahead of teammates Brandon Reid (47) and Chen (45). Therrien (47) of Hillel won the B class, ahead of Ingledew (44) of Campion College and Diallo Richardson (44) of AISK.

Zacre Davidson of Hillel won the Juniors C with a score of 42, ahead of teammate Justin Paul Williams and Matthew Carroll of AISK who both shot 39.

Campion College’s Danzell Knight (45) topped the Sub-juniors A class, with the Hillel pair of Zach Lazarus (44) and Matthew Josephs (37) finishing second and third. Roman Tavares Finson (39) won the B category ahead of Mark Desnoes (39) and Brandon Gooden (38).

The Beginners A was won by Aidan Murray who shot 36, with Austin Levy (31) and Vivek Chatani (31) taking the runners-up spots. The B class was won by Zaniel Knight (44), ahead of John Chin (43) and Liam Neil (40).

Isabelle Chin shot 42 to win the Girls A class ahead of Leah Azan (33) and Alysia Evans (32), while Ashleigh Azan (27) won the B division. Tayla Ziadie (26) and Sarah Mahfood (21) were second and third respectively.