Bruce Duquesnay topped a big field of 129 shooters to win the fourth staging of the Driftwood Sporting Clays Challenge at the picturesque Murphy Hill venue in St Ann on the weekend.

Duquesnay was very pleased with his win at the venue, which had only been used for sporting clays for the second time. He said that it was very satisfying to win ahead of top gunners such as nine-time national champion Ian Banks, six-time national champion Shaun Barnes, and defending champion Goeffrey Ziadie. He credited the preparation work that he did with coach Khaleel Azan for the win. Duquesnay shot 93 out of 100 targets.

Ziadie, Barnes and Nicholas Benjamin all shot 92 and had to go to a shoot-off to determine the positions behind Duquesnay. After the shoot-off Ziadie was declared the runner-up, while Barnes was declared the ‘A’ Class winner and Benjamin the ‘A’ Class runner-up. ‘A’ Class third spot went to Craig Simpson who shot 91.

All three shooters were on form as the shoot-off should have been only six birds. At the end of first shoot-off which was done from the back of a Nissan van parked on the side of the cliff, they all picked off four of six birds and had to go a second round which still did not yield a clear winner.

Benjamin shot three of the six birds, but Barnes and Ziadie bagged four each. This required a third round between the two shooters who got harder birds to shoot or ‘true pairs’, meaning that the birds are launched at the same time so a higher skill level is required to pick them off.

At this third stage Ziadie (two) got the better of Barnes (one) and was declared the overall runner-up to Bruce Duquesnay, while Barnes took the top ‘A’ Class spot.

Toni Barnes, cousin of Shaun Barnes, won the Ladies category with a score of 75. She won ahead of Yasmin Eyre with 74 and Wendy McMaster with 73.

Barnes, who returned to shooting after a five-year hiatus while she completed her studies to become a doctor, won her first tournament back late last year. She, too, was pleased with her win.

She said that she had fun while her family watched. She credited her cousin and coach, Shaun Barnes, for his expert guidance, to win another tournament. She said that she was going to be around this year and looks forward to winning the Ladies category at the end of the year.

Nari Williams Singh, a member of the organising committee, was pleased with the high turnout of shooters for the tournament. He said that the returns garnered will be used for the Driftwood Gun Club’s charities, which is dominated by educational support in the Treasure Beach area in the parish of St Elizabeth. He said that the tournament is their biggest annual fundraiser.

The Driftwood Sporting Clays Challenge consisted of 100 targets shot from 17 stations on the sprawling, picturesque venue in the hills of St Ann with an awesome view of lush vegetation to one side and the Caribbean sea and Ocho Rios to the other side.

Other than the ‘A’ Class and the Ladies category, the top three in the other classes were: ‘B’ Class — Tommy Smith with 89, Peter Mafood with 88 and Robin Rickhi with 88 (positions determined by long run or performance on designated stations). ‘C’ Class — Alex Cunningham with 86, Omar Francis with 85 and Zaxh Lazarus with 85; ‘D’ Class — Cameron Pangsang with 86, Nathan Chin with 85 and Dale Delapenha with 80; ‘E’ Class — Toni Barnes with 75, Wendy McMaster with 73 and Matthew Sale with 72; Hunters or beginners — Jordan Vaz with 78, Yasmin Eyre with 74 and Jason Younis with 70; Juniors — Cameron Pangsang with 86, Zach Lazarus with 85 and Roman Tavares-Finson with 84. Sub Juniors — Nathan Chin with 85, Jordan Vaz with 78 and Zaniel Knight with 73.