Jamaica’s top gunners shine at Spectrum Handgun Championship
Jamaica’s top gunners came out ahead of their Caribbean rivals in all four divisions that they competed in during last Saturday’s Spectrum Handgun Championship.
Ryan Bramwell topped the Open Division, Andrew Yap took the Standard Division, Chris Hart won the Production Optics Division and Yeonie Campbell captured the Production Division.
Bramwell put on a masterclass of speed and accuracy to earn 1059.57 points after sending down 215 rounds in a 130.70 seconds over the 12-stage course at the Jamaica Rifle Association’s (JRA) head office on Mountain Avenue. Second-placed Alrice Pamer got 949.3 points in 149.48 seconds, while Lennie Moulton bagged 879.76 points in 147.33 seconds to place third.
“It was a great day. I shot very well. I was very fast and aggressive today and I had very good hits, so overall I came out the winner. It’s a great feeling. Having put in the work and gotten the results, it’s fantastic and we go back to the drawing board and keep training,” said Bramwell.
He added: “I have been analysing my shooting and I keep improving. I keep going back to the drawing board, analysing and getting better. I think during last year, while I was very accurate, the guys may have been a little ahead of me on time, so what I have done over the past few months, I have started working a lot on the physical aspect and I have gotten much faster so there is more of me to handle now.”
Campbell copped the Production Division and topped the Ladies’ Category. In the Production Division she got the better of Anthony Johnson in a nail-biter with just one point separating them, while Rohan Wallace was third. In the Ladies’ Category she was comfortably ahead of second-placed Florence Golding and third-placed Philana Brown.
“My performance today was okay. I think that the stages were very challenging today, as well as they allow you to express yourself, so I was pleased with my performance,” said Campbell.
“The ladies did very well today, exceptionally well today. I am very proud of them. I think that we all competed admirably today and the results showed it,” she added.
There was stiff competition in the Standard Division which went to masterclass shooter Andrew Yap, who bagged more than one 100 points ahead of Darin Richards and Lennie Moulton who came second and third, respectively.
The Production Optics Division winner was Chris Hart ahead of Adrian Randle and Michael Bradshaw who took third place.
One overseas-based shooter got on the podium with Richard Durrant of Barbados claiming second place in the Senior Category of the Standard Division behind Ellsworth Dixon, while Thomas Jones was third.
Durrant commended the Jamaican shooters. “The quality of shooting here is really high. I had some hope of placing on the podium, placing first, second or third. The last time I was in Jamaica was in 2018 and since that time the standard has really skyrocketed. Andy Yap and Greg Henry, I shot against them before, but today it was a different level. I have to go back to the lab now so I have to recalculate my shooting. The experience was really good. I would come again,” he said.
Major John Nelson, president of the JRA, was pleased: “It has been an amazing day. It’s a Level 3 which is in fact the highest match we have had now for about four years. It is such a highly respected match that we had international shooters from the Cayman Islands, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago. It was attractive enough for them to be here. We had the highest turnout of our local shooters, including our shooters from Trelawny and Negril that came and from May Pen who came in to compete in this particular shoot,” he remarked.