The largest contingent of 49 Jamaican shooters competed in the recent Gator Cup in the Unites States at the Quail Creek Plantation, near Okeechobee, Florida, where they came away with 50 medals.

The group was the second largest team at the event, only bettered by the US with over 600 shooters out of a total of 729. The competing countries included Canada, UK, Puerto Rico, Norway, France, Germany, Ecuador, Colombia, Jamaica and the US.

The highest overall winner of the 200-bird main event was Anthony Matarese from the USA. He shot 193 out of 200 for the two days of that aspect of the competition.

The Jamaican with the nearest score to the winner was reigning national shotgun champion Christian Sasso. He posted a two-day total of 171 in the Master Class category. He was pleased with his performance as an amateur compared to the professionals who competed in his category.

Sasso said that the weather conditions changed continuously from hot to cold, cloudy, foggy, rainy, to clear, sunny and warm on the final day. This affected him and the other Jamaicans who are not used to such conditions in a short period of time.

Competition was held in various shooting styles such as Sporting Clays, Fitasc, 5-Stand as well as Super Sporting.

Several shooters pocketed medals in the 200-bird category including six-time national champion Shaun Barnes (169) who was second in the AA Class; Chad Ziadia (158) was second in B Class; Roman Tavares-Finson (159) won C Class and was the best placed junior in the Main Event. Ryan Chen (147) was second in D Class; Nathan Chin (148) finished second in E Class, and Mark Desnoes (139) was third in E Class.

Other shooters who did well included Nicholas Benjamin (149) who was fourth C Class, and junior shooter Jonathan Ralston (146).

A number of shooters ended the competition with multiple trophies. They included Ryan Chen, who competed in D Class and got trophies in Sporting Clays, Fitasc, prelimary round and 5-Stand. Nathan Chin in E Class also got medals in similar categories.

A big winner at the competition was junior Mark Desnoes, who shot the highest individual score of 89 out of 100 in the preliminary round.

Raymond McMaster also performed well after taking second in the AA Class preliminary round with a score of 81 out of 100. Nicholas Benjamin posted 80 to take C Class.

Some of the other shooters who had podium finishes include Alex Cunningham, Jeffrey Panton, Gordon Bucknoe, Jordan Samuda, Richard Duquesnay, Peter Mahfood, Rory Chung, Chad Ziadie, Ryan Chung, Gerry Chin, Dale Delapenha and James Chen.

The Jamaican contingent included two women who competed along with the other 72 women in the competition. They are national female shotgun champion Wendy McMaster and Simone DaCosta. However, they did not have any podium finishes.

The shooters were pleased with the support from various Jamaican and United States entities that combined to allow them to travel with their equipment without hassle. The Jamaican entities are the FLA, Customs Department, Trade Board, Ministry of National Security, and from the USA the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms which grants permits to allow for firearms to enter the US.