Christian Sasso was the toast of the Jamaica Skeet Club awards banquet, as he officially received the fruits of his labour in the National Shotgun Championships at the Jade Gardens Restaurant a week ago.

Sasso, who enjoyed an impressive season in all disciplines, copped six awards, including the coveted JC Thwaites Cup as overall National Champion, dethroning four-time champion Shaun Barnes. Also among the awards were the Henry Chen Memorial and Clem Tavares Memorial Trophies for his championship exploits in the Skeet and Five-Stand where he outgunned Bruce DuQuesnay in both disciplines. He also took the top A class award for the FITASC category, but had to settle for the runner-up prize in the Trap section, and the second runner-up spot in the Sporting Clays discipline.

Interestingly, Sasso started out shooting only the Skeet discipline, but his true potential was recognised by his father Leighton Sasso, who later encouraged him to compete in the other disciplines. The newly crowned champ underscored that that decision reaped its reward and the hard work paid off.

“I feel great; I have been working hard since the start of the year and it has paid off and I am very thankful. The preparations were hectic, I had to be practising around the clock and even had to work out to keep my arms strong to lift the gun, but it was worth it,” he said.

And having tasted success, Sasso will be a target for the other competitors next season. However, he remains doubtful about competing in every discipline.

“I wasn’t planning on shooting all the disciplines next season, but I am sure as the time draws closer I will want to defend my titles, so we will see what happens from here,” he noted.

Many-time national champion and veteran Ian Banks walked away with the Frankson Challenge Cup for the Trap discipline, as well as the Hugh Croskery Snr Cup as first runner-up in the overall standings.

Meanwhile, Robert Yap-Foo copped the Leighton Sasso trophy for the FITASC category, with Andrew Azan taking the runner-up prize, while Richard Azan Jr took home the Metry Seaga trophy for the Sporting Clays championship, with Craig Simpson taking the runner-up award.

Simpson was later awarded the Best Dressed Chicken Cup as overall winner of the A class, Andrew Hopwood took the Peter McConnell Cup for the B class, while junior shooter Jake Therrien copped the Khaleel Azan Cup as the C class winner.

Another junior shooter, Simon Khouri, took the Errol Ziadie Cup for topping the D class, and Garth Pearce walked away with the Tony Kelly Cup for the E class. Brandon Reid won Junior Champion trophy as the top junior marksman. Alysia Evans was named top female shooter for the national and junior championships.

The Manchester-based shooter was delighted.

“It was very challenging, but I continued to work hard and stayed focus. The last tournament was really tough because I had problems with my gun, but the motivation from my parents assisted me a lot,” she said.

For Khaleel Azan, president of the Jamaica Skeet Club (JSC), it was an excellent season brought to a fitting end.

“This year has been one of the best years for the skeet club so far. We have had growth in sponsorship, we saw growth in our membership, and we saw an improvement in the standard of shooting which is very significant. There was also an increase in the number of juniors shooting that speaks well to the future of the sport,” he assessed.