Chikka maintains lead in All India junior golf tourney

Bangalore: Local favourite Chikkarangappa maintained his one-stroke lead in the All India Junior golf tournament despite turning a two-over 74 card in the third and penultimate round here on Wednesday. Chikkarangappa now has an overall score of four-over 220, one shot ahead of Rigel Fernandes who shot a 78 and is now placed at 221. Chikkarangappa was brilliant on the front-nine with a hat-trick of birdies from fifth to seventh holes but a poor back-nine marred his card as he sank six bogeys against just one birdie. There would be interesting battle for title on the final day tomorrow as Saqib shot a one-under 71 for an overall total of 223, three behind Chikka. Saqib has rounds of 74, 78 and 71. Trishul Chinnappa (75-72-76=223) is tied with Saqib. Fernandes however leads the Category B, as he is eight shots clear of Manu Gandas (72-71-78=221) and lying third is Shiv Naren Srinivasan (77-78-75=230)In Category C, Prakhar Asawa (Jaipur) (73-74-68, 215) leads Piyush Sangwan of DLF who is at 216 with rounds of 72-74-70. In Category D, Kshitij Naveed Kaul of DGC leads with rounds of 78 and -82 at 160, while Digraj Singh Gill has rounds of 84 and 83 for a total of 167 one ahead of Aadil Bedi (85-83) Among girls, Aditi Ashokh from Bangalore Golf Club returned the best card of one over par 73 (79-73) to join Mehar Atwal at 152 (76-76) with Gurbani at the third place 74-79=153 and Gauri Monga 80-74=154. Ankita Kedlaya (81-77) from Eagleton is tied with Seher Atwal (78-80) for the first place in C Category with Ridhima Dilawari at the third place with two identical scores of 80. PTI