The first day of these competitions also saw three national records being re-written, Abhinav Bindra of Punjab doing it twice in 10m air rifle events. First, he fired 568 to sunk the previous record of 565 in the civilian category. And then, continuing with the form he struck in the morning, he erased the mark in the junior men (civilian) section in the evening with an identical score of 568.

Praveen Dhurve (565) of Maharashtra was third behind Shimon Sharif (564) of Delhi. He scored 568 in the junior men (civilian) section for another record.Shimon Sharif of Delhi finished the day with 564 to come second while Dhurve failed to match hisprevious best and ended on 563 points.The other national record was created by Sudhir Pal of the Army, who scored 568 in the air rifle event. He shattered the earlier mark of 566 set by Praveen Rawat last year. Though Rawat bettered his previous best by scoring a point more, he had to be contend with the second spot. Sharif finished third with 564.There are several shooters still left in the fray and once they finish their engagements tomorrow, the top eight shooters from among the four categories will go into the final. But on today's showing, Yadav, Jaspal Rana, Bindra and Subhash Rana are sure to make the final round which will be of 10 shots each.

Delhi's Subhash Rana, the younger brother of Jaspal, also took the top spot by scoring 530 each in the civilian and junior men categories of the free pistol event, while in the air rifle open category, it was Charan Singh of the Army who led the tally with 572 points.Jaspal, who failed to match Satender's firepower today, said that he was satisfied with hisform despite finishing second. ``This is not my best event and yet I have managed to come second today. Maybe, I came come up trumps in the final,'' he said with a smile.A sailor by profession, Yadav was confident of clinching the gold. ``It's my favourite event and I expect to win the gold here,'' said the leader. But he will have to be cautious in the final if Ved Prakash, lying fourth after today's performance with 534, manages to reach the final.

For, the armyman had finished second behind Vivek Singh of Delhi in the trials here some time ago.Unfortunately, Vivek Singh had a rather poor day on Saturday to be pushed to the eighth spot. He scored 562 and his chances of making the final look very bleak. Samresh Jung, competing also in the open category, found himself buried at the sixth spot. The Delhi shooter scored 530.