The Guyana National Rifle Association (GuyanaNRA) has received a timely donation from the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA).
President of the GOA, K.A. Juman Yassin, responded to the request from the GuyanaNRA for assistance and outfitted the National Rifle Team members with jerseys and track suits ahead of the 2019 edition of the West Indies Fullbore Shooting Championships to be hosted by Trinidad and Tobago.
Vice-Captain of the national team, Dylan Fields, accepted the donation in the presence of two other team members. Fields expressed the association’s gratitude to the GOA for the donation and stated that they are looking forward to future collaborations with the GOA.
Fields stated that this donation will further add to the professional outfit of the team, “as we will be well uniformed as ambassadors of our country.”
On team preparation for the West Indies Fullbore Shooting Council’s, Individual, Long and Short Range Championships, Fields said that the shooters are have been training hard each Sunday for the past few months and are beginning to peak.
This Sunday will be the last team training before departure on October 19 for Trinidad and Tobago where Guyana will be facing the host nation, Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda in what is anticipated to be another fierce battle across the various ranges.
In offering brief comments, Yassin said he was happy that the GOA is able to outfit the rifle team which has been doing Guyana proud over the years and he was equally happy to hear that Captain Mahendra Persaud will be joining the team this year as coach in the twin island republic. Persaud, who has been at the helm of Guyana’s dominance of the sport for over a decade, is still recovering from his illness.
Meanwhile, GuyanaNRA Secretary, Ryan Sampson, added that while the team was able to secure airfare through a BBQ fundraiser, they are still seeking corporate assistance to offset the accommodation and entrance fees.
He stated while that letters were sent out, responses have been slow with the GuyanaNRA receiving a mixture of positive and negative responses.
“The national team is therefore appealing to corporate Guyana to assist us to once again fly the Golden Arrowhead with pride at the Caribbean level.”
Guyana has been the most dominant nation in Short and Long Range shooting among its Caribbean rivals with its marksmen making up more than half of the West Indies Team at International events.
