Mansher comes back to win first trial

Friday, July 4 1997

Mansher comes back to win first trial

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, July 3: Mansher Singh made a strong comeback with one perfect card followed by a 22 to emerge winner in the low-scoring first trials to select the Indian team for the Asian Clay Shooting championships. His 47 added to yesterday's 67 meant a total of 114, which was still two points clear of Gaurav Sondhi, Zorawar Singh Sandhu and Manavjit Singh, who were involved in a three-way tie at 112.

In skeet, Hari Simran Sandhu had the best score of the day 44 out of 50 and put alongside his 65 out of 75 from the first day, he finished with 109, which despite being rather low sufficed for the first place.

For the second day running, the scores were very poor. Mansher's 25 in the first card this morning, was only the second perfect one in two days, the first one having come from Zorawar yesterday. The youngster who led Mansher by four points after 75 shots, had a 41 out of 50 today. He shot 21 and 20, while Manavjit Singh, lying second with 69 on the first day shot 43 today to finish with 112.

Gaurav Sondhi looked like falling by the wayside with a 21 in the first card but in the last lot missed just one bird for a 24. Anwar Sultan with 22 and 22 in two cards finished with 109, while Anirudh Singh, who did well at the National Games, shot 20 and 22 to finish with 107.

Moraad Ali Khan, one of the senior shooters in the field had another misreable day with 21 and 20 and finished with a poor 105, a score he would prefer to forget in a hurry.

Since this was only a trial, there was no tie-breaker to decide the second to fourth places.

Behind Sandhu in skeet was Rao Inderjeet Singh also had a 44 (21 and 23) and ended with 108 for the second place, while B S Sodhi with 21 and 22 finished with 103 for the third place. Saby Nobis of Calcutta had a 39 (19 and 20) for a total of 101 and Rahul Roy with 20 and 21 for a total of 102 was just one point ahead.

After a day's rest, the second trials will be held on Saturday and Sunday. The selectors will decide on the team on the basis of the two trials.