The 22-year-old Delhi lad, winner of two gold medals in Victoria City in 1994, will be the top seed after his top score of 582 in the Air Pistol Badge matches in Langkawi on Thursday.

England's Michael Gault, expected to be his toughest rival, was one point behind Jaspal. Jaspal was fairly consistent dipping only once to 96 in the six rounds. And his scores of four 97s and one 98 besides the 96 suggest there is enough scope for improvement when the actual competition is held next week. Jaspal's teammate, Satendra Kumar, who was recently given the Arjuna Award, began shakily with a 91, but then regrouped himself and tallied 571.

If India are to hope for a medal, then Satendra will have to pull his weight and improve to at least 578-580 range, whichcould then see India make a bid for the pairs gold, too in the event. England's Gault (581) and Nick Baxter (573) would be strong challengers for the pairs gold.

Yesteday Jaspal had topped the field in Centre-fire pistol badge match, too.

So he should now go into the competition beginning on Sunday with a lot of confidence.