Jamaica confident of shooting way to podium at handgun championship
Jamaica Rifle Association (JRA) president Rohan Wilson believes Jamaica’s team can overcome the odds at the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) Handgun World Shoot, beginning on Tuesday in South Africa.
The 12-member team will compete against nearly 2,000 competitors from nearly 50 countries as they make their tenth appearance at the 50-year-old championships.
However, the team’s preparations for the championships have been less than ideal due to a lack of much needed ammunition.
“Jamaica in general has been experiencing a significant shortage in ammunition — this is via legitimate firearms or ammunition dealers and the JRA is one such dealer so we have been having a really difficult time in bringing ammunition that would have facilitated training and other JRA activities,” Wilson told the Jamaica Observer.
“However, the reality is we have made do with the very little we had. We have had to be creative in terms of how we distribute the very little bit of ammunition we have.”
The Jamaicans will be up against some of the best in the world and though many of the countries have had better resources, Wilson says the team is confident they can pull off some upsets.
“Let us take, for example, the American team — they would be shooting a thousand rounds a day in training while our team is shooting 400 rounds per week. There’s a vast difference there,” he said. “They understand the nature of the fact that the competitors from around the world have so much more resources, there are types of firearms, the amount of ammunition and the ammunition that is specifically tailored to their use and to their firearms.
“Our team has to use what we have available to us and not what we would ideally love to use. So there will be a lot of pressure on the team to perform but I have no doubt that our team will stand up to the task at hand.”
Jamaica’s shooting Sportsman of the Year Ryan Bramwell and Sportswoman of the Year Yeonie Campbell are among the 12 set to participate at the championships.
Team: Rohan Wilson, Ryan Bramwell, Yeonie Champbell, Lesgar Murdock, Dudley Brown, Shayon Francis, Petrano Belafonte, Adrian Randle, Rohan Wallace, Florence Golding, Anthony Johnson.
