Dubai: Meet the Keyte couple. Roger and Carol, septuagenarians who have their 40th wedding anniversary coming up on August 23, and have travelled halfway round the world and participate in the world’s richest shooting competition at the Nad Al Sheba shooting range.
Life for the Houston-based Keytes was normal till around three years ago they were smitten by the “shooting bug”. Their introduction to the sport was very incidental when some of their friends were going for shooting in the vicinity and asked the Keyte couple to accompany them.
“We were not too enthusiastic at first but then both of us said: why not try out something different and see how it goes. Here we are today: participating regularly at the state and national championships in the USA,” Roger told Gulf News as he prepared to go on Layout 2 on the penultimate day of the Second Nad Al Sheba Desert Shooting.
“For everything that we have enjoyed professionally and personally, we think it is shooting that gives us so much more enjoyment and a feeling of togetherness as a couple. No matter how old, or how smart and how feeble you are, you can still go out there and enjoy this sport with great satisfaction,” he added.
Roger turns 72 on March 25 while wife Carol will be 74 on October 5. Both remember each other’s birthdays, but what they recollect more clearly is the various incidents in their life as shooters. “There are so many incidents that we can recall. This is one sport you can enjoy without being the best. What I quite enjoy is the look on peoples’ faces when Carol and I turn up for competitions. Maybe we do look out of place anywhere we go, but we are used to this. For sure, Carol is possibly among the very few wives shooting along with her husband,” Roger said.
Their scores at the end of the three days were not too flattering but for both, this simply did not matter. “We will try to do better. Initially we had thought we would be the worst shooters, but we are somewhere in the middle. We are not here to win the title for sure, and there is no pressure on either of us. If the other shooters miss a target they get disappointed. But if we hit a target then we are so happy,” Carol said.
“We’ve already decided we want to return to this competition next year as well. And we will bring along the same group of shooters who introduced us to the sport,” she added.
