KARACHI, Aug 29: Fancied Rashidul Ghazi clinched the Data Steel individual bridge championship crown by 133.25 at Aslam Memorial Hall on Sunday. Rashid, who represented the country at the last year’s Generalli world individual bridge championship to which only the world’s top 100 were invited, kept his cool throughout despite a stunning performance by Shakeel Chandna (75 percent) in the first segment.

M A Ansari produced his best (70 percent) to join the leading contenders, Khalid Mohiuddin, Farhat Abbas, Pervaiz Mirza and Muhtisham Ashai.

Rashid played cautiously never allowing opponents to take any undue advantage in the final segment.

Khalid, who had a bad session earlier, was replaced by Mubashir Puri after he complained of feeling unwell. Mubashir fought well in the closing stages to rise to a respectable position.

Pervaiz Mirza showed consistent performance but met a few unlucky boards where his partner could not respond technically.

Shakeel was on the offensive till the last card dropped but this time all such decisions went against him and he returned with a poor score of 47 percent.

Rashid thus emerged on top with 59.75 percent and adding to it his first segment score of 73.5, the total score rose to 133.25.

M A Ansari met some unlucky swings in the closing stages to finish runner-up with a total of 124.97 and Shakeel third with a total of 123.67.

Twenty-four players were in the race for the title.—APP