Veteran marksman Idris Kasmani floored a field of 22 shooters to emerge overall winner of the Mars Mechanical Engineers Air Pistol March shoot at the Nairobi Sailing Club yesterday. Kasmani carded a total of 527 points off the Highest Possible score of 600 to grab the pole position.
Marianne Cherotich won the women’s cluster after downing 512 points as Aman Gujral was top in the junior class with 501. Firing five projectiles over 12 rounds, the winner posted 261 points halfway the competition and registered a slight improvement in the last period with 266.
Kasmani’s performance in the second session consigned Guru Gheley to a silver medal position. Gheley was ahead of Kasmani by two points in the first subtotal (263) but shot 258 in the second letting the latter cruise to the top.
Bhaveet Chudasama settled for the third place with 516 points having posted sub 260 in both halves (257 and 259). Cherotich, a Kenya international trigger puller and a pilot by profession, was not too happy with her score saying there was disturbing bright natural light at the indoor shooting range in Lang’ata. She beat Linet Owiti (497) and Doreen Okiri (494) to the second and third places on the podium.
“It was a bit tough today (yesterday) because the positions I took had different lighting. It was too bright. We’ll see how to go about it and I am positive next shoot’s scores will be much better,” said Cherotich who will be returning to training next Monday ahead of the April 16 shoot. The international firer will also be preparing for the Air Pistol World Cup in Munich, German in May, All Africa Games in Rabat, Morocco in August and Africa Championships in Cairo in September.
Shitul Shah hit 505 to complete the list of shooters who scored points above 500. Having two entries only in the junior category, Aman’s younger brother Tejveer Gujral carded 402 points. Poline Munyi was the only firer in the air rifle category where she claimed 396 points off HPS 600.
