The father-daughter duo of Ray and Aliana McMaster were big winners at the Rangers Gun Club Sporting Clays Classic at the Tru-Juice complex in Bog Walk, St Catherine, on Sunday, May 4.

Over 130 shooters competed for top honours in various categories on the extensive ‘driving course’ under extreme conditions of heat and high humidity. Some of the attendees were seen cooling off in the river after the shoot.

Ray started very well, picking off all six targets on his first station and only lost five birds on the way to the top score of a whopping 95 out of 100 targets. He was very guarded before he knew that he actually won the shoot, while saying that there were many outstanding shooters whose scores were not yet posted, including last year’s winner Christian Sasso. He was, however, beaming ear to ear when he was declared the winner and even more so as he celebrated with his daughter, the Ladies champion.

“I’m elated. Very good. It felt very good. I mean, when I came in, I know I was shooting well and I know I would put up a good score so I was confident to say the least, and it just happened. It just happened today,” Ray said.

“I’ll tell you something, sharing that moment with her is special to me. Many times, I mean it’s a norm for her to be the female champion but she normally shares it with other male champions. Because our sport is so competitive and you know just being able today to deliver a solid performance and to be crowned champion and sharing that position with her is just special to me.”

Aliana also started well bagging all six targets on Station 1 but lost five out of ten on stations 4 and 5. She recovered to clean up the next five without losing a target, eventually losing another five before posting a final score of 90 to successfully defend the Ladies and the Junior titles.

She was pleased, “honestly, I kinda leave the statistics for everybody else to keep up with. I really just set my own personal goals and just try to achieve them myself. And even when I come out on a course to compete against other competitors, I honestly just kind of ignore everybody else, kind of just focusing on what really matters most, which is having fun, not even winning. Winning will never trump just having fun and that’s kind of what even progressed my skill in the sport and just my consistency was just because I’ve gone to practice so many times and just simply enjoy the sport for what it is.”

“I’m honestly so proud of him. I wasn’t squadding with him today, which is an unusual thing for us because normally the family is squadded together. But honestly, words really can’t describe how special these type of moments are because, trust me, they don’t come around often enough. And so I can really appreciate just the moment that we can spend, the moment that we can just celebrate together, and just both of our wins” said Aliana.

After the main event, the excitement extended to shoot-offs to determine the runner-up, which went to Gregg Chong, A Class first — Todd Lazarus and A Class second — Ian Banks. All three men shot 93 in the main event.

The Hunters or Beginners got into the shoot-off action as well when Krishna Phillips needed three rounds of shoot-offs to take the category ahead of Ammon Lalwani. They both posted 75 at the end of the main event.

Station 4 was dubbed the Bonus Station. There were only four targets but they proved to be difficult for everyone except Christian Sasso and Todd Lazarus, who bagged all four. It took them two rounds of shoot-offs to break the tie, which went to Lazarus who was super happy with his haul of a Barbecue grill, Cooler, and a Knapsack.

Several shooters moved up in classes while the class winners were: B Class — Robin Rickhi 83, C Class, B Class — Zachary Chong 86, D Class — Max Williams 89, E Class and Sub-Junior — Rheis McMaster 81.

Part proceeds from the shoot will go to the Food For the Poor organisation.

The lead sponsor was Sterling Asset Management; Worthy Park Rum, Stewart’s Auto Sales and STL Solar were gold sponsors; while Wisynco supplied Tru-Juice and Wata for hydration, along with a multitude of other sponsors.