Shiv Kapur back in reckoning

Promising Indian Shiv Kapur fired a superb three under par 69 third round to emerge joint leader with Sri Lanka's Anura Rohana at the end of the penultimate round and raised strong hopes of a medal in the individual event of the golf competition at the 14th Asian Games in Busan, on Saturday.

Second round leader Anura Rohana shot one over par 73 and, along with the young Indian, aggregated a three-round total of 214.

The Indian and Lankan dazzled at the Asiad Country Club to lead their nearest Chinese Taipei rival H W Chang, who aggregated 216, by two strokes.

Chang had a round of 74.

Another Chinese Taipei golfer, Chen Liang Cheng, was in fourth place with 217 (70, 72, 75).

However, the day's best card was by local favourite Hyun Woom Kim, who returned a round of four under 68 and lay joint fifth at 219.

First round joint leader Kapur, who slipped to fourth place yesterday, gave a steady display and shot four birdies and had three bogeys in today's score. On his first nine, he hit two birdies and faulted twice while on the wayback, he hit birdies on the 10th and 14th, but bogeyed on the 16th.

However, it was poor showing by the other Indians, which might cost the country a medal in the team event.

Manav Das had a dismal 12 over 84 round and slipped from 10th to 26th place. The Indian was totally out of touch and started with two bogeys. He then double faulted on the 6th hole and lost four shots on the 7th and then again bogeyed on the 8th to finish the first nine with nine bogeys. There was no respite for him while coming back as he had seven bogeys and two birdies to finish with a three round total of 232 (74,74,84).

The Third Indian, Keshav Mishra, who was placed 45th yesterday, improved his position and climbed up the leaderboard to be at joint 36th place. He had a third round two over par 74, which gave him an accumulated score of 236 (82,80,74). He hit three birdies and four bogeys.

Harender Prasad, the fourth Indian in the fray, had a poor round of eight over par 80 and was placed at joint 41st spot with a total of 240 (82,78,80). He shot as many as 10 bogeys while hitting two birdies in his round. He was 40th at the end of the second round.

In the team event, the Indians have an aggregate of 676. Chinese Taipei are leading the table with 650 followed by Japan (654), Sri Lanka (664) and Korea (666).