Roman Tavares-Finson and Kimberley McNally took to the course at Jamaica Skeet Club in Portmore for the ATL Automotive Group Inter-Schools Sporting Clays Challenge on Sunday, and prevailed ahead of all the junior male and female shooters.

Tavares-Finson successfully defended his championship, which he won in 2016 when he became the youngest shooter to win the tournament at 13 years. He shot 49 out of 50 in the main section and 17 out of 18 in the Super Six (shooters with the top six scores engage in an 18-bird shoot-off — seven shooters competed in this section). He ended with a combined total of 66 from 68 this year (two better than last year).

Tavares-Finson was pleased with his win. He said “it feels good. It was very nerve-racking to keep my composure and, going through the first couple of stations and missed that one on station six, I had to blank my mind and then continue to do what I was doing before”. He looks forward to more shooting to celebrate the win.

The runner-up was Zachary Chen with a total score of 65 (48 in main section and 17 in Super-Six) and second runner-up went to Peter Mahfood on 62 (50 in the main section and 12 in the Super-Six).

Female winner Kimberley McNally ended the tournament on 37, same as runner-up Annabelle Chung. They engaged in the only shoot-off of the day to determine the female champion. That was done on station one with each of them having to shoot six birds. Chung dropped one bird early in the round, while McNally took out all six birds. Regarding the win NcNally said, “it feels great. I am very proud of myself”. She said that “it was difficult to stay focused, but I had to keep my composure and to just focus on my methods and techniques to get the birds”.

Hillel High were declared the school champions after amassing 236 points, ahead of AISK with 220 and Campion on 216. The top-five scores were used to determine the winners. Hillel have won every championship since the inter-schools’ challenge started in 2011.

Coach and former president of the Jamaica Skeet Club Khaleel Azan was very happy with the staging of the tournament. He said “we had a good tournament, an excellent tournament based on the assistance and the organisation that we received from the younger kids”.

He spoke glowingly about the top boy Roman Tavares-Finson and the top girl Kimberley McNally, who both played outstandingly on the course. Additionally, he had special praise for Peter Mahfood, who shot all 50 targets in the main section.

The tournament was the largest to date, with 77 shooters on the course (two more than last year). There were 14 competing schools, include three newcomers. The newcomers were Munro College (three competitors), Glenmuir (two) and Ardenne (one). The other schools were Hillel, Campion, AISK, JC, Immaculate, St Andrew High, Creative Kids, Hopefield Prep, Sts Peter & Paul Prep, Immanuel Christian Academy and Heinz Simonitsch Prep.

There were nine shooting categories, broken down in terms of age and shooting ability. The categories were Junior A, Junior B, Junior C, Sub Junior A, Sub Junior B, Sub Junior C, Sub Junior D, Girls A and Girls B.

The junior shooters targeted 50 birds from eight stations and then another 18 birds from three stations in the Super-Six.

The sponsors were ATL Automotive Group — title sponsor Best Dressed Chicken, Bigga, Hawkeye, Reggae Jammins, St Mary’s Banana Chips, Tin-grinners Club Jamaica, Tru-Juice, Wata, and Arts & Photo Impressions.

The top three in the various classes were:

Junior A: Peter Mahfood 50, Roman Tavares-Finson 49 and Zachary Chen 48

Junior B: JP Dicpchand 48, Cameron PangSang 46 and Dylan Williams 42

Junior C: Alexander Desnoes 35, Jared Lewis 34 and Kyle South 31 (long run over Keith Murray also 31)

Girls A: Savannah Miller 32 and Leah Azan 20

Girls B: Kimberley McNally 37, long run over Annabelle Chung, also 37 and Anna Issa 35

Sub Junior A: Nathan Chin 48, Johnathan Ralston 45 and Mark Desnoes 43

Sub Junior B: Richard Todd 41, Jordan Vaz 33 long run over Thomas Gore, who also shot 33

Sub Junior C: David Wong 36, Ryan Lue 34 and Matthew Holness 33 (the prime minister’s son)

Sub Junior D: Leonaic Ducognon 21, Adrian Barnes 17 and Chase Harding 16

Sub Junior D shot 25 targets, while all other shooters shot 50 in the main section. The seven shooters who made it to the Super Six round shot 18 targets.