India's Vikram Rana leads on day three

BY RICHARD Dwight

YESTERDAY at the RCGC in the penultimate day of the four day, 4 round Sri Lanka amateur open Golf Championship, Vikram Rana of India who had scores of 71 and 68 on the previous two days, put up a fine display on the fairways and greens, with quite a few birdies, to register a steady 2 under par 69 to total 208 out of 213 after the third and lead the others.

Coming close behind him is yet another Indian Chirag Kumar, who having stroked 69 and 67 earlier dropped his play yesterday to go 2 over par 73, with an overall of 209 a 4 under par. Following the two is Amardeep Malik of India with 212.

The highlight of yesterday's 3rd round play however was that of three times Sri Lankan champion, Simarjeet Singh's brilliant performance, making amends for his poor previous 73 and 74 with a fine 5 under par 66 to be on par with 213. Simarjeet birdied the 1st, 2nd, 7th and 8th to be 4 under par in the first 9 holes, then birdied the 15th and 16th to be 6 under, dropped a shot in the 17th parred the 18th to be 5 under 66.

The others on 213 are N. Amarapadma, Vikrant Chopra, K. Prabagaran and Mithum Perera on 214. With fortunes fluctuating amongst the golfers the championship appears to be wide open and much will depend on the way they perform on the decisive fourth and final round today.

In the Paralakamedi Trophy team event the Indian 'B' made up of Chirag Kumar and Jasjeet Singh - 281 beat Sri Lanka 'C' comprising K. Prabagaran and J.J. Kumar - 283. The Sri Lanka 'B' 287 with Mithum Perera and Tissa Chandradasa came third.

In the duel between Sri Lanka and Pakistan for the Zia Ul Haq Trophy Amarapadma, Indika, Mithum Perera and Tissa Chandradasa scored 217 to beat Pakistan's team of Vaqas Ahmed, Tariq Mehmood, Wasim Rana and Aadil Jehangir - 225.

There was an upset in the ladies championship when N.H. Yoon beat the favourite Jackie Dias 1 up in the 19th Neha Majithia beat Ito Matson 3/1.