Chennai, Jan 19: Rahul Rai of Delhi, who gained an impressive lead of seven points before entering the final, maintained his consistency in the final and walked away with the gold in the clay pigeon skeet event shooting 131 in the 42nd National Shooting Championship for shotgun events at the Alamadi Range, near here, on Tuesday.

After five rounds, the top six shot 25 targets in the final to decide the medals. Enjoying a healthy lead, Rahul Rai and Manavjit were assured of gold and silver respectivley, and fight was only for the bronze between Baba PS Bedi (95), HS Sandhu (96), DP Savya Sachi (97) and R Rajagopal (99).

Mairaj Ahmad Khan of Uttar Pradesh won the gold in the junior section in a thrilling contest where he edged out Ronjan Sodhi of Punjab in the tie-breaker. Ronjan's brother Birendeep Sodhi took the bronze.

In the team event, the domination of the the northern teams took a beating for the first time in the Nationals with Karnataka pushing Delhi to the second place.Uttar Pradesh finished third. For Karnataka, Baba Bedi (95), Savya Sachi (97) and G Susheel (86) tallied 278 points while Rahul Rai spearheaded the Delhi challenge shooting 110. But his teammates, Vijay Soni and Rajpal Singh Kochar shot only 83 and 85 respectively for a total of 278. But Karnataka had better scores in the fifth and last round and were declared winners.

For the 47-year-old Rahul Rai, this is his first individual gold in the Nationals. The Delhi shooter who already qualified for the Sydney Olympics said that he was not happy with today's scores. With top shooters Zoravar Singh and Rao Inderjit Singh skipping the event the field was depleted and there was not much competition for Rahul. Strong winds also prevented better scores.

In the finals held as per the National Rules, Tamil Nadu swept all the medals. Surendran Manuel won the gold with 25 points while J Jayesh Chand and M Prabu Pandian took the silver and bronze respectively.

Clay Pigeon Skeet (ISU) finals:

Men: 1. Rahul Rai(Del) 131; 2. Manavjit Singh (Pun) 122; 3. DP Savya Sachi (Karn) 119.

Team event:1. Karnataka (G Susheel, DP Savya Sachi, Baba PS Bedi) 278; 2. Delhi (Rahul Rai, Vijay Soni, Rajpal Singh Kochar) 278; 3. Uttar Pradesh (Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Afsar Hussain Khan, Amardeep Singh) 254.