KARACHI, May 1: Pakistan Navy shooters got off to a sterling start as they scooped up five gold medals on the opening day of 12th National Shooting Championship which commenced at the Naval Shooting Complex Wednesday.

Sailors clinched gold medal in both air rifle individual and team event, rapid fire pistol individual and team event and trap team event, creating a new national record in trap team contest by accumulating 197 points, beating the previous record of 187 set at Lahore National Games last year.

Navy trained by two foreign coaches Victor Sivkov and Alexander Kaminasky from Ukraine, dominated the show on the opening day.

Firdous Khan grabbed the air rifle gold relegating two favorites team-mate Dawood Jan and Ayaz Tahir to second and third position.

Trio of Firdous, Dawood and Ayaz helped Navy to claim team gold with a handsome score of 1721/1800.

Kashif Riaz from Navy stunned his team-mate Zahid Ali to capture the gold in rapid fire pistol with score of 676/709. Zahid contended with a silver and Imran Ali secured the bronze.

In trap event Lt Cdr Shahzad Noor was leading in the individual event with a score of 69/75 after three rounds followed by Lt.Shibli 64/75 while two Sindh shooters Capt Mahmood Sultan and Usman Sadiq are tied for third spot with 63/75.

Two more rounds will be fired Thursday to decide the individual winner.

Sindh took their first medal in Trap team event when Captain Mahmood, Usman Sadiq and Dr Naveed Shah with 186/225 took the silver with Army taking the bronze.

Following are the results. Air Rifle Men. 1. Firdous Khan (Navy) 676.9/700 2. Dawood Jan (Navy) 673.6/700 3. Ayaz Tahir (Navy) 661.1/700 Team. 1. Navy 1721/1800 2. Army 1681/1800 3. PAF 1561/1800 Rapid fire pistol. 1. Kashif Riaz (Navy) 676/709 2. Zahid Ali (Navy) 672.2/709 3. Imran Ali (Navy) 668.3/709 Team event. 1. Navy 1720/1800 2. Army 1657/1800 3. PAF 1297/1800 Trap team event. 1. Navy 195/225 2.Sindh 186/225 3. Army 181/225.—APP