Confidence is high that Jamaica’s team to the World English Sporting Championships will figure prominently following their impressive display on the international circuit at the recently concluded Gator Cup tournament at Quail Creek Plantation in Miami, Florida.

The 34-member team returned to the island in good spirits on the backs of what can be described as their best-ever performance at the event, which was used to select a team to compete at the World English Sporting Championships in San Antonio, Texas, in April.

Former National champion Christian Sasso will headline the six-man team, after he shot a dazzling score of 95 against top-rated professional shooters in the Fitasc discipline, where he finished as runner-up in the Master Class.

Sasso accumulated an overall score of 175 and will be joined on the trip to Texas by Bruce DuQuesnay (173), Craig Simpson (172), along with Errol Ziadie, Ian Banks and Leighton Sasso, who all ended with similar scores of 170 each. Bobby Chung (169) and Geoffrey Ziadie (166) have been listed as the reserves for the squad.

The Jamaica Skeet Club (JSC) will be offsetting the expenses for the team’s airfare.

Khaleel Azan, president of the JSC was beaming about the fact that Jamaica has the second largest contingent at the Gator Cup behind the host. He also pointed to the significant progress made by the shooters over the past years.

“I think we have made great progress over the last four years in improving the standard of shooting at our club through lessons from Ben Husthwaite and the junior programme. We have upgraded traps that can throw better targets, new towers, more out of town shoots and generally more shooting and the results speak for themselves.

“I think this is the best we have done since we have been travelling overseas as a group and I certainly believe that we are getting much closer to international standards now. We are not there yet with the target throwing because the guys there are professional but we have a better idea now so we can come home and tell O’Neal Brown and his team what we have learnt and I think that is going to help us going forward,” Azan told the

Jamaica Observer.

Among the outstanding performances during the preliminary round was 13-year-old sub-junior Roman Tavares Finson, who shot a score of 87, before being undone by complications with the rifle.

A clean sweep in the AA class by Ziadie (89), Damien Moe (89) and Banks (85) was another highlight of the preliminaries.

However, the main attraction was the clean sweep in the E Class of the 200-target main event, where Jordan Samuda (165), Peter Mahfood (152) and Zachary Chen (151) secured honours for the Jamaican team. Ray McMaster (165) was second in the C Class.

Chen (80), Samuda (69) and Dale Delapenha (66) also achieved an E Class sweep in the Fitasc discipline, while McMaster and Chad Ziadie with similar scores of 76, took the minor placing in the C Class.

In the Super Sporting 50 targets, Banks (47) and DuQuesnay (46) were second and third respectively in the AA category, while Samuda (41) and Ricky DuQuesnay (40) took the top two spots in the E class.

“The main event at the bottom is where we normally dominate and once again we did extremely well in the E class with a clean sweep. But besides that we kept pace with the competition every day.

“So I think we are on the right track and I think we are going to have a bigger impact next year with more juniors set to make the team. Our exposure from the shoot has given us more indication of the better targets that are being thrown overseas and we hope to apply them in our local tournaments,” Azan noted.

One key figure missing from the World English Championships is current national champion Shaun Barnes, who ended third in the Five-stand 50 target discipline with a score of 39. His best scored during the main event was 90 achieved during Thursday’s preliminary.

Azan believes the level of competition on the local scene will continue to be on the high with numerous shooters now in contention for the national championships honours.

“I think the shooting over the next two months is going to be very tight in the competition for the national championship because the defending champion did not make the World Championships. But you can’t count him out because he is always very consistent, so those eight people are going to be in contention,” the national coach and mentor opined.

“As the year progresses we are going to start increasing the difficulty of the targets, we are not far off but they are a little bit more knowledgeable as it relates to throwing targets and it was a very valuable learning experience,” he ended.