Last week, from Wednesday the 25th of April through to Saturday April the 28th, Pepe Fanjul hosted the 25th annual Casa de Campo Sugar Shooting Tournament at the Casa de Campo Shooting Centre and Rancho Peligro.
The annual Sugar Shooting tournament is part of the “Sugar” event, which also incorporates a golf component headed Pepe’s brother Alfy Fanjul played just a few weeks ago from March 28th to the 31st (click here for photos and coverage).
Casa de Campo’s impressive and extensive shooting facilities which include the onsite 245 acre Shooting Centre, as well as “Rancho Peligro” is so comprehensive that the annual Sugar Shooting tournament consists of Sporting Clays, 100 pigeons, the Colombaire Pigeon Race and a Driven Pheasant and Partridge Shoot. In fact, Casa de Campo’s shooting facilities are considered by many to be among the best in the world.
This year, more than 30 experienced shooters took part in the tournament, many who attend every year, as well as a number of new faces, including Andres Fanjul the nephew of Pepe Fanjul, who despite never having played in the tournament before, was a fierce and very skilled competitor.
“Casa de Campo has a special place in my family’s heart so winning the event had always been a personal goal of mine.”
Rancho Peligro is a beautiful wilderness reserve owned by the Central Romana Corporation (who also owns Casa de Campo) and is less than an hour’s drive outside of Casa de Campo, or mere minutes if you fly in by helicopter as the shooters of the Sugar Shooting Tournament did.
The Driven Bird Drive took place over 2 days, with the competitors taking part in 3 drives with the release of approximately 1,000 birds (pheasant and partridge.)
The live pigeon shoot took place at the Casa de Campo Shooting Center, where they have 2 pigeon rings and was a thrilling event to watch, with the birds released from boxes just 30 meters from the shooter.
The Sporting Clays section of the tournament took place over 2 days, with the competitors shooting 200 targets in total (100 per day) at 10 different shooting points which make up the entire circuit. At every stop the shooters encountered different challenges, with the clays appearing from different directions and at different speeds.
The Colombaire is arguably the most thrilling (and certainly the scariest to watch) of all the contests, with the birds launched into the air by hand to be shot down by the competitors.
The finale of the 25th annual Casa de Campo Sugar Shooting Tournament was the dinner and prize-giving hosted by Pepe and Emilia Fanjul at Casa Grande, where the competitors of the tournament and their guests enjoyed a delicious dinner under the stars and the winners were awarded their trophies.
This year the winner of the Gubelmann Cup (the overall winner of the Casa de Campo Sugar Shooting Tournament) was Andres Fanjul – pictured above with his uncle Pepe Fanjul and James Gubelmann, who donated the cup.
Congratulations to Shaun Snell, director of shooting for Casa de Campo and the entire team at the Casa de Campo Shooting Center for organizing such an impressive event.
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