Rashmee Rathore of Andhra Pradesh pulled ahead of two champions Arti Singh and Saniya Sheikh to clinch the women's skeet title in the National shotgun championship at the Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Monday.
The 30-year-old Rashmee shot rounds of 21, 23 and 23 to pip former Asian champion Arti Singh by four points. Rashmee had shot her personal best 68 in the World Cup in Sydney last year, but after shooting 67 in the Asian shotgun championship in Kuala Lumpur, she had slipped to 61 in the Asian championship recently in Doha.
Arti had rounds of 18, 23 and 22 while the 19-year-old Saniya, champion the last two times, was unable to capitalise on her good start, and slipped down to 62, following rounds of 23, 19 and 20.
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There was no final for the women as there were only four shooters in the fray, and the fourth Shreiya Chowdhary of Rajasthan shot 18, 12 and 14 for a modest fare.
Allan keeps lead
In the men's section, Allan Daniel Peoples retained his stranglehold to lead with a total of 122 out of 125. After leading on 74 overnight, Peoples had rounds of 25 and 23 on Monday.
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Having finished only four rounds, Asian champion Man Singh and defending champion Mairaj Ahmad Khan were breathing down the neck of Peoples with identical scores of 97.
The final got postponed to Tuesday morning on expected lines as three rounds had to be finished on the second day owing to backlog. While Sheiraj Sheikh and Smit Singh shot 117 and hoped to be in the final, Parampal Singh Guron, who had shot so well in the recent Asian championship when he made 120, struggled though he gave a strong finish with a 25. The Chhattisgarh shooter had rounds of 25, 21, 22, 23 and 25 for a total of 116. He may have to endure the suspense till the last two squads finish their fifth round on the morrow.
The results:
Skeet: Junior men: 1. Abbas Ansari 108; 2. Mohd. Hamza Sheikh 103; 3. Karam Sukhbir Singh 96.
Women: 1. Rashmee Rathore 67; 2. Arti Singh 63; 3. Saniya Sheikh 62.