Dubai: Russia's Yerjanik Avetisian and Finland's Marko Kemppainen took the early initiative at the Dubai Shooting Championships, which opened at the Jebel Ali International Shooting Club yesterday.
Russian Avetisian maintains a one-point lead over Slovakia's Danka Bartekova and Louiza Theofanous of Cyprus, while Kemppainen was riding high at the top of the men's leaderboard with two perfect visits to the range.
In the women's competition, the Russian shooter missed out on a near perfect first round of 24, but made quick amends on her second visit to the range with a perfect 25 for a cumulative score of 49 to lead the 11-member women's field.
Bartekova and Theofanous are hovering around in tied second with totals of 48 to their credit. The Slovak opened with a first round of 23, but came back strongly in the second to crack a perfect 25.
Theofanous had identical scores of 24 to her card, while German Christine Brinker was further down in fourth with 47 and American champion Connie Smotek in fifth with a 46.
Rhode trying
Three-time Olympic double trap champion Kimberly Rhode is a surprising eighth after rounds of 21 and 22.
Rhode, who was the champion in Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) Olympic Games, is not too worried about her performance here as this is the first time that the American is competing in the skeet discipline.
"I think I have done well to stay far from the end of the pack," Rhode said.
The men's category - with 66 shooters - was equally competitive with Kemppainen holding a distinct edge with his superior shooting skills.
A quartet of shooters, including the UAE's Saif Al Futais, is hot on the heels of the Finnish shooter with identical scores of 49.
The pack of four is led by Colombia's Diego Duarte Delgado, Cypriot Antonis Andreou and Kuwaiti Abdullah Al Rashidi along with Al Futais.
Futais, who narrowly missed out on a medal at the Doha Asian Games in December last year, started with a 24 and then came back to shoot a perfect 25 to be among the early chasers for the winner's prize of Dh250,000 on offer.
Competition will continue from 8am today with the women shooting another 50 targets before going into the final shootoff over 25 targets later this afternoon.
