Top shooters deliver at Christmas Hamper

FIVE OF Jamaica’s best shooters captured top spots in the five competitive divisions of the Jamaica Rifle Association’s (JRA) Christmas Hamper Match on Saturday at the Woodleigh Shooting Range in Clarendon.

Fifty-four competitors took to the 10-stage range under sometimes cloudy skies with brief appearances from the sun.

Ryan Bramwell topped the Open Division, Chris Hart bagged the Carry Optic Division, Petrano Belafonte secured the Limited Optics Division, Greg Henry held on to the Limited Division, and Michael Bradshaw was the surprise winner of the Production Division.

Bramwell, who ended with 887.45 points, ahead of Andrew Yap’s 795.02, and Alrice Palmer’s 726.34 in the Open Division was overjoyed.

“I am very happy with my performance on the weekend. I really wanted to win the year with a strong performance and I shot a very fast and accurate match on Saturday. When the dust settled, I ended up winning eight of the 10 stages in my division and I won the match by 11 per cent and 92 match points, which is actually the largest margin of victory all year. My performance is the result of all the work that I have put in. I have actually done a lot of observation and analysis when I attended the US IPSC Nationals in November and this match presented me with an opportunity to put some of that knowledge and information into practice, and I think I have a lot more in the tank. I am really looking forward to 2024 as my training and preparation for the World Shoot in 2025 continues. It promises to be a really exciting year ahead and I can’t wait for the action to start in January.”

The Production Division was very competitive with less than two points separating Michael Bradshaw and second-place Anthony Johnson. Bradshaw, who switched division from Carry Optics to Production put in a disciplined performance to post 554.43 points just ahead of the experienced Anthony Johnson with 552.68. Sanjay Welsh was further back in third on 533.97 points.

“My performance on Saturday was a result of both mental and physical training, weeks before the Christmas Hamper. Production is the division which I first started shooting and I decided to shoot the same to tighten up a few fundamental aspects of my shooting. Being focused is also one of the main reasons I was able to come out on top as one can easily lose focus whilst going through the stages, hence I knew I had to remain focused because I knew I was going up against some of the top shooters in the country,” said Bradshaw.

Chris Hart’s 714.40 points was good enough to bag the Carry Optics Division ahead of a fast-charging Darin Richards, who ended with 697.86 points. Christopher Nunez was comfortable in third place on 664.87 points. Experienced female shooter Yeonie Campbell placed fourth with 566.90 points after experimenting by shooting in the Carry Optics Division instead of her usual Production Division

Petrano Belafonte secured the Limited Optics Division with 713.03 points which put him comfortably ahead of Adrian Randle on 692.74 points and Ekepedeme Otuokon on 652.53 points.

The Limited Division saw some keen competition but Greg Henry came out the winner with 668.42 points. Ronald Brown’s 642.19 points gave him second place, while Paul Dixon was close behind in third place on 541.74 points.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s ladies of Constable Shayon Francis - 644.32 points and Detective Sergeant Sasha Mullings - 518.35 points, dominated the law enforcement category after placing first and second, respectively.

Newly elected president of the JRA, Rohan Wilson, summed up the day.

“first of all congrats to all of our winners. The Jamaica Rifle Association’s Christmas Hamper is one of our staple events each December. It’s one of our calendar events that we look forward to. It’s a fun shoot but it’s also this year very significant in that it is helping our competitors prepare for the World Shoot, the International Practical Shooting Confederation World Shoot in South Africa in 2025. So far, there will be a team of eight that will be going. The team is now in the process of being selected. This was not one of the qualifying events but nonetheless it is one of our preparatory events and so we are grateful to the Woodleigh Shooting Range, which offers a great spread in terms of real estate, it offers great diversity in stage construction and our competitors came out and they enjoyed it. We did see quite a number of competitors exercise extreme dexterity in the way they performed and it was just an awesome competition to watch.”