Sport - Shooting   

Mansher leads the pack

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI DEC. 1. It was his birthday, and Mansher Singh was quite pleased to lead the pack with a 72 out of 75 on the opening day of the National shotgun shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Sunday.

On a pleasant day, when the warmth of the winter Sun added to the picturesque setting, the 37-year-old Mansher had rounds of 23, 25 and 24 to be three points clear of the Asian clay champion, Anwer Sultan.

"I have been shooting well and I am quite pleased with the score. I want to shoot a nice high score tomorrow,'' said Mansher who has won the national nearly a dozen times.

Anwer had a bad start, perhaps because it was at the back of his mind that he was fasting for Ramzan, and may not be at his best. Yet, the champion shooter, the only Indian to win a quota place for the last Olympics in Sydney, recovered from a first round score of 21, to shoot two rounds of 24.

"I missed the last bird in the second series. Otherwise, the score could have been better. Anyway, the real competition is tomorrow'', said Anwer.

Anirudh Singh of Navy was on par with Anwer, with rounds of 24, 22 and 23. The defending champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu was not in his best touch, and had rounds of 22, 23 and 21 for a 66.

The champion of the last five editions in the junior section, Birendeep Sodhi did well among the juniors with a 67. It was, of course, intriguing that he allowed the form to slip badly, after a perfect 25, a rare feature this day, in the first round.

In skeet, Naveen Jindal led with a 72, as he had identical rounds of 24 in the three series. The bronze medallist of the last edition, Naveen adjusted his programme in such a way that he could rush to lead his team in the polo final in the afternoon.

The rest of the lot could not shoot that well. Naveen's teammate from Chattisgarh, Rajpal Singh Kochher shot a 70 with rounds of 25, 23, 22, while five others, defending champion Amardeep Singh Rai, Rao Inderjit Singh, Harinder Singh Bedi, Savya Sachi and Parakrama Chouhan shot 69 each.

The silver medallist of the last edition, Saravdeep Singh Mann had a bad second round of 20, and could thus only accumulate a total of 66.

It will be interesting to see whether Naveen is able to continue his good work, or whether there is a new champion in skeet on Monday evening.

There was no such scope in the women's section, as the lone competitor Arti Singh had no option but to win the title this day, as the women's competition, restricted to 75 birds finished on the opening day. Arti, who had made the prestigious World Cup finals last year, has not been shooting that well of late, and it was not a surprise that she could only accumulate a total of 65, with rounds of 21, 20 and 23.

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