Cameron Pang Sang held off a strong set of shooters in the Super Six shoot-off to win his first HOA (highest overall) and be crowned champion of the NCB Capital Markets Junior Sporting Clays Open at the Jamaica Skeet Club in Portmore on Sunday.

Pang Sang bagged 95 out of 100 birds in the main event then another 16 in the Super Six to post an overall score of 111 out of a possible 125. He shot seven of nine on station one, five of eight on station two, and had to pick off at least another three birds on station three to get the win.

He got four on the station. Matthew Josephs and Mark Desnoes were engaged in an additional shoot-off, after ending on 109 each, to decide on the first and second runner-up, which went to Josephs and Desnoes, respectively.

According to Pang Sang, “it’s really hard to explain. For a long while I felt that this is coming. A lot of people have been telling me you are knocking at the door, you are just right there and you just have to put in a little extra work, and I put in the little extra work and it finally came through. I have been wanting to be HOA for a long while, and for an even longer while I have suffered defeat and learned from it.”

Pang Sang, who is the captain of Hillel Academy, the champion school, added. “Every year competition gets more difficult. No matter what, people just keep getting better and that’s just part of the evolution. We really try to do our best and that really is what it’s about.”

The level of competition this year was so strong that seven shooters qualified for the Super Six. The shooters with the top six scores were engaged in a 25-target shoot-off from three stations. The seven shooters who qualified for the Super Six were Cameron Pang Sang 95, Toby Hugh 95, Roman Tavares Finson 94, Zachary Chen 93, Mark Desnoes 93, Matthew Josephs 92, and Nathan Chin 92.

Savannah Miller successfully defended her title with a score of 82. She was followed closely by Abigail McMaster with 80, while Annabelle Chong with 68 was third. Miller was happy with her performance.

“This shoot, I really impressed myself on some of the stations. I just went out there and did my best and came to Uncle Khaleel and he keeps pushing me to do the best that I can and I really enjoyed this shoot.”

Girls B shot 50 targets and the top three shooters in that category were Aliana McMaster 46, Abigail Miller 43, and Rachel Azan 39.

The top school was Hillel Academy with 284 points, with contributions from Cameron Pang Sang (95), Toby Hugh (95) and Roman Tavares-Finson (94). Jamaica College with 260 knocked AISK out of the top three and demoted Campion with 258 to third place. Ryan Lue with 91, Dylan Williams with 88 and JP Dipchand with 81 contributed to JC’s score, while last year’s champion Natan Chin with 92, Zaniel Knight with 83 and Richard Todd with 83 were responsible for Campion’s total.

The top three shooters in the classes were 17-20 Cameron Pang Sang 95, Zachary Chen 93 and Matthew Josephs 92; Junior A — Toby Hugh 95, Roman Tavares-Finson 94, Mark Desnoes 93; Junior B — Thomas Gore 89, Rajir DaCosta 88 and Cody Delisser 84; Junior C — Bradley Wright 82, Dylan Vaz 78 and Daren Gordon 62; Sub Junior A — David Wong 89 and Richard Todd 83; Sub Junior B — Ryan Lue 91 and Noah Azan 76; Sub Junior C (out of 50) — Kyle Read 46, Alexander Clarke 38 and Dillan Harris 35, and Sub Junior D (out of 50) — Joshua Burrowes 34, Kyle McConnell 29 and Mark Narcisse 28.

The targets/birds were launched from 15 shooting stations.

“I am very pleased, but what is interesting and what is very good for the sport is when you have new champions — because when you have a new champion it shows the others that anyone can win who is mentally ready on the day.

“It also encourages me as a coach to try with every kid and give them the best opportunity to win,” said Khaleel Azan, former president of the Jamaica Skeet Club and shooting coach who had high praises for Cameron Pang Sang and Savannah Miller who were mentally strong on the day and were worthy winners.

Looking to the future he said, “if you notice today, we have a new crop coming from the bottom. We have a set of 10-and 11-year-olds that are coming up, so that’s fantastic.”

Jordan Samuda, president of the Jamaica Skeet Club said, “the competitiveness of our juniors is phenomenal. Many classes today were decided by only one target, which was overall fantastic. The highest score on the day was 95 which means that of 100 birds, that they only dropped five birds for the entire day. It speaks to the mental toughness, it speaks to the technical aspects of shooting — so overall the competiveness is where the juniors are participating a lot more and they are giving our older members a run for the money, so fantastic to see the turnout.”

Senior marketing officer Roland Herny of title sponsor NCB Capital Markets said, “the youth market is a big part of what we do and of course we are encouraged, because we are assisting the youth right in the sport and so it’s something that keeps us coming back. It’s something that we believe in along with coach Khaleel Azan”.

The NCB Capital Markets Junior Sporting Clays Open began in 2011 with under 20 shooters. This year almost 60 shooters were on the course. The shooters hail from several schools across the island including Ardenne, Glenmuir, Munro, St Andrew High School, Hillel, AISK, Jamaica College, Campion and others.