Airline misplaces Rathore’s gun

New Delhi: The man with the golden gun, ace-shooter Lieutenant Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore returned home late on Wednesday night after a glittering performance in the Beijing Olympics qualifiers held in Egypt.

But it was not a happy homecoming for Rathore, who shot a gold at the ISSF shotgun world cup championship in Cairo.

The airline authorities misplaced his gun, and after a wait of nearly two hours, told him that it was not traceable.

“We flew Lufthansa Airlines and hope it’s a responsible airline. Unfortunately it’s not proving so. I just lost my gun today,” Rathore said.

The Athens Olympic Silver medallist pulled-off an amazing comeback in his double trap event at Cairo. He bagged a gold in the double trap of the same event on Sunday to pick a quota place for himself for the Beijing Games.

The army marksman topped the field with a score of 182 after making it to the finals through sudden death following a tied finish with Qiang Pan of China at the end of qualifying rounds.

“It was a typical movie situation. A guy is out of the final and he has to make a comeback. From a position of sixth, where my rival was four points ahead of me, I had to fight my way through in extremely windy conditions. I did it and the crowds loved it” Rathore said.

Rathore has had a great run this season. He began with shooting gold in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and then followed it up with an eighth and sixth place finish in the first two shooting world cups.

All this against the very best in the world

“I need to push my level of performance higher up. My worst performance should be better than others’ best,” Rathore added.

Rathore shot a score of 137 (47+46+44) in the preliminaries but bounced back with an excellent 45 in the final in which he hit the bird in the last 10 rounds.

Original Article

Airline to venture in Southern Sudan

By GEORGE KEBASSO
GLOBAL Aviation Africa limited- a Nairobi based airline company has announced that it will soon pioneer flight services to the Southern Sudan as an avalanche of lucrative business opportunities beckon after years of turmoil in the country.

The airline will launch its first flight services to Juba from Nairobi and Juba to Khartoum in a move that its Chief Operations Director, Nobeel Quresh said is aimed at establishing a pioneer role alongside other firms such as Kenya Air Ways.

Other airlines which are also keen on the move include Safari air express, Astral Aviation, Jetlink, 740 Airlines and Martinair.

He said the route flight schedule between these regions will spur business investments as traders will easily access the market for their products.

The airline is working on a joint venture with a Sudanese company- Ababeel Aviation, which has acquired a Russian manufactured aircraft, that will fly the route once landing rights have been granted by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), the airline company intends to provide cargo services to and from Kenya.

The Russian made aircraft- Ilyushin IL 76 TD is suitably built as a cargo carrier with a medium and long-range freighter with four turbo fans and has a carrying capacity of up to 40 tones.

Ababeel Aviation was incorporated in Sudan in 201 with Al Waleeds Talodi as its Chief Executive Officer. The company is fast growing, establishing itself in the aviation industry within the region.

It has a maintenance base in Khartoum and has several fleets Ilyushin IL 76 TDs from Russia and from other countries such as Ukraine. It has contracts with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to supply medical drugs and equipment.

It has also signed a working agreement with the White Nile Petroleum Company to transport its petroleum products, with ESS world wide and the Nile Barki Aviation Company among others.

The airline company prides itself as the only one in the region which offers such freight services regardless of the class of their clients.

Quresh stated, “This is the only freighter service with this kind of service into Juba and only freighter service in Nairobi and Khartoum and therefore clients will not be based with royalties.”

With such initiatives in the offing, it is hoped that the war torn country will cut a niche as a regional investment hub.

Players in the financial sector including the Kenya Commercial Bank have also shown zest to invest in Sudan.

Original Article