New Delhi: Viraj Madappa seems to be on a roll as he consolidated his lead to 14 strokes and almost sealed the title at the end of the third and penultimate round of the IGU Northern India Junior Golf Championship being played at the Army Environmental Park and Training Area course here on Thursday. The Kolkata lad added a 3-under par 69 to his overnight score to be 8-under par 208 for the tournament.

With the title almost decided, the fight for minor placing seemed to take importance with Manu Gandas who is placed second at 222 being chased by Tapendra Ghai (223), Piyush Sangwan and Yuvraj Sandhu (224 each ) and Karandeep Kochar and Mohan Sardar (225 each).

Meanwhile in Category B, Karandeep Kochar was leading by four shots from his nearest rival Adilbir Singh. Karthik Sharma was third at 230 while Arjun Prasad was fourth at 231. Saathak Chhiber was fifth at 239.

Viraj who won the Rajasthan Juniors last week has been in good nick and today was no different. With an error-free front nine where he also made two back to back birdies on the fifth and sixth, the 15-year-old took the turn at 2-under. With a similar stint of form, Viraj birdied the 11th and 12th to be 4-under for the day. A bogey on the par-3 13th was followed by a birdie on the par-5 14th. Another bogey on the par-3 16th cut down his score by one shot as he finished the day with a commendable 69.

“I was hitting the ball really well. The win at Jaipur last week has definitely given me a boost,” said Viraj. “Although I have a huge lead, I am not going to take it easy. I am looking forward to my second straight win,” added the leader.

Top scores after 54 holes

Category A & B

208 Viraj Madappa (67, 72, 69); 222 Manu Gandas (74, 73, 75); 223 Tapendra Ghai (71, 73, 79); 224 Piyush Sangwan (78, 74, 72), Yuvraj Sandhu (75, 75, 74); 225 Karandeep Kochar (Cat B) (77, 75, 73), Mohan Sardar (74, 76, 75); 226 Ritwik Jain (75, 73, 78); 228 Rohan Rana (76, 80, 72); 229 Adilbir Singh (Cat B) (79, 74, 76), Shubham Narain (76, 77, 76)

Category B

225 Karandeep Kochar (77, 75, 73); 229 Adilbir Singh (79, 74, 76); 230 Kartik Sharma (76, 76, 78); 231 Arjun Prasad (73, 83, 75); 239 Saarthak Chhibber (76, 85, 78); 240 Saptak Talwar (83, 80, 77); 241 Kartik Digvijay Singh (82, 81, 78), Pratheek Nagaprasad (82, 81, 78); 242 Karan Pratap Singh (81, 79, 82); 244 Sarthak Kohli (80, 85, 79).