Eric Odanga
23 July 2008
Bisley — Kenya's Mike Lekalaile won a silver medal on Monday as the 2008 United Kingdom Bisley reached the halfway stage. This was in the Police category, which is the total over two distances - Daily Mail (500 yards) and Alexandra (600) - where he returned 121-13 to collect the National Rifle Association Silver Medal. Lekalaile just missed the gold after dropping one shot.
The gold went to RJF Dawson from Prairie Province who scored 122-13 while Malaysia's Zainal Abidin Md Zain came third on 120-10. Seven other Kenyan shooters - David Kirui (115-7, Gerald Muturi (113-9), Edward Legei (115-7, Musa Yego (113-3), Fredrick Muema (110-2, Eudicas Nyagah (109-8) and John Serem (107-7) - also made it to the list of the next best top scorers. It took concerted efforts by the Kenyan officials Philip Ndolo, Dido Rasso and the full-bore captain Edward Legei to have the results reflect Lekalaile's medal. Initially, the organisers had left out Kenya's names for alleged non-payment of entry fee.
The trio had to literally camp in the NRA office for the anomaly to be corrected. Lekalaile raised the red flag after totaling his scores and relayed the message to the Kenya camp to trigger off the action which led to his silver medal. 'I am unlucky to have missed out on a gold but happy to win the first medal for Kenya," he said.
It was a good Monday for the Kenyan team as Peter Mathenge qualified to the next stage of the Donaldson Memorial, a combination of the scores of Duke of Cambridge (900 yards), Lovell (1,000) and Corporation (1,000). Mathenge joins an elite group of top 100 shooters in the long range who will battle it for the ultimate prize.
He scored 137-10 and was ranked 38th out of the top 100 shooters in this category. The podium place was occupied by PG Kent from Old Epsomian on 143-17 ahead of David Calvert (RAF Target Rifle Club) 142-13 and D. Rose (Old Epsomian RC) who returned 142-2. The Armed Forces shooter was the lone ranger in the Corporation (City of London) fired at 1,000 yards where he placed 13th out of 1,050 shooters. He scored 47-2 in this category which was won by RSF Shouler (Langer RC) on 49-3.
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