Manavjit, India start favourites in Asian Clay Pigeon

Singapore, Sep 1 (UNI) Manavjit Singh Sandhu will be eyeing a Golden double as India start as firm favourites to win the individual and team events in men's Trap at the Asian Clay Pigeon Shooting Championship beginning here tomorrow.

Close on the heels of Manavjit's exploits at the World Championship in Zagreb, India will once again aim to beat the strong challenge from Kuwait, China and host of other Asian countries.

Manavjit will be joined by Mansher Singh and Anwar Sultan in the team event in the tournament which gives the marksmen an opportunity to get into form for the biggest event of the year, Asian Games.

Manavjit is confident of a good show here and he said, ''I am pleased to be defending my gold medal in Singapore. The Range is a good one so there should not be too much difficulty in finding rhythm.

''But trap shooting is a sport where conditions matters a lot. We will have a good challenge from the Chinese who are gearing up for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and also Qatar who will be hosting the Asian Games in December,'' he explained.

''I see this event as another opportunity to build my challenge for the ultimate assault which is a medal at the Olympics,'' added Manavjit.

In all, 58 shooters are competing in the two-day Trap event and the finals will be held on Monday.

Manavjit holds the individual record, shooting 145/150 while the team record was also created by the Indian trio of Manavjit, Mansher Singh and Moraad A Khan who had totalled 357/375.

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