Christian Sasso and Aliana McMaster battled heat, humidity, and 138 other shooters in Bog Walk, St Catherine, to take a hold on the Motul National Sporting Clays Championships at the weekend.

They shot 100 targets each day, and Sasso had to shoot an additional 25 birds on Sunday as part of the Super Six shoot-off among the competitors with the six best scores at the end of the main event (200 birds).

Sunday’s Super Six shoot off consisted of eight gunners who entered the bullring to determine the best sporting clays shooter.

Sasso’s 181 was three shots better than his nearest rival Roman Tavares-Finson, which gave him the title of highest overall. His two-day scores were 81 and 82 for 163 in the main event while Tavares-Finson posted 79 and 83 for a combined total of 182.

“It feels good,” Sasso said. “Ah long time I haven’t taken the 200-bird tournament, so, you know, mi tek this one and celebrate.

“It was a long two days. Two hundred birds, the Super Six. The sun was very hot so we had to stay hydrated out there. We had amazing birds and at the end, I was victorious, so things worked out for me.”

McMaster posted 77 and 76 on Saturday and Sunday for a two-day total of 153 to cop the title for the third year in a row. The runner-up in the Ladies category was Wendy McMaster (her mother), with scores of 69 and 70, 139 overall.

Aliana was expressive in her assessment of the event and her performance.

“Honestly, I’m always so grateful for every win, I’m always so thankful because frankly, you can’t guarantee that it’s going to come, you can’t say, ‘Oh yes, because I’ve reached a certain skill level then it must happen’,” she said.

“It doesn’t have to happen, it’s not guaranteed. So, there’s obviously some marks that I didn’t meet this weekend, and that’s okay. It just shows that there’s still room for growth. There’s always next year and I look forward to going after them one more time.

“Honestly, the courses were solid. They were very good — tough but good. For the standard that it was supposed to be, I definitely found that the course setters they match up and meet the standards that we were kinda looking for as competitors and I could really appreciate the course that they set. I think yesterday was a bit more challenging than today but today still came with its own technical difficulties and challenges in itself. So, I honestly could just appreciate both courses and it was definitely a rough weekend, but it was also an enjoyable weekend.”