KARACHI, June 23: A fierce contest featuring low scores was witnessed in the opening round of three-round Olympic skeet trials with Ahmed Sultan enjoying a slender one-bird lead against Khurram Inam at the Naval Shooting Range here on Saturday.

After five rounds of 25 points each, Ahmed accumulated scores of 111 after rounds of 22, 20, 22, 23 and 24.

Khurram scored the rounds of 22, 22, 23, 22 and 21 to end with a total of 110.

Ahmed made a sluggish start by scoring just 62 points out of 75 in firing the opening three rounds from different stations.

However, he looked in a good nick scoring 47 points out of 50 in the last two rounds of the day.

On the other hand, Olympian Khurram, a South Asian record holder, looked slightly better in the first three rounds, scoring 67 points to gain three-bird advantage.

The last two rounds saw Khurram collecting only 43 points as compared to Ahmed’s 47 points out of 50 to surrender the advantage.

Two more rounds of 125 birds each will be contested on Tuesday and Thursday. The shooter accumulating the highest total will get the ticket to represent Pakistan in the London Olympics.—APP