Manu Gandas shot the best score of the second round to seize lead in the Southern India Juniors Golf Championship here on Wednesday.

Gandas, who triumphed last week at the Eagleton Golf Resort here, carded a brilliant four-under 68 for a two-round total of 141 in Category ‘A’ at the Karnataka Golf Association.

Overnight leader Tapendra Ghai slipped to second position, a stroke behind Gandas, after returning a 70 while Feroz Singh Garewal was a distant third at 146 following a 71.

Piyush Sangwan was fifth at 74 while the quartet of Jairaj Singh Sandhu, Feroz Singh Garewal, Varun Parikh and Arjun Malik were all tied for the sixth place at 75.

Arjun Prasad (152) grabbed the Category ‘B’ lead with a decent 74 that helped him open a four-shot advantage over Jaiveer Singh (79).

Gandas was in his elements on a balmy Wednesday. Kick-starting his round with a fine birdie, the teenager picked up his second shot of the day on the par-5 fifth. He then stepped on the accelerator at the turn, nailing birdies on the 10th and 11th before firing back-to-back birdies on 14th and 15th to go six-under for the day.

However, all that brilliance took a beating towards the end as he dropped bogeys on the 17th and 18th but still ended the day with a slender advantage.

Leading scores (after 36 holes): Category ‘A’: 141: Manu Gandas (73, 68); 142: Tapendra Ghai (72, 70); 146: Feroz Singh Garewal (75, 71); 148: Viraj Madappa (73, 75); 149: Jairaj Singh Sandhu (75, 74), Prakhar Asawa (73, 76); 151: Yuvraj Sandhu (77, 74).

Category ‘B’: 152: Arjun Prasad (78, 74); 156: Jaiveer Singh (77, 79); 157: K Siddharth (78, 79); 159: Karandeep Kochar (81, 78), Arjun Puri (80, 79); 161: Tanvir Kahlon (82, 79); 162: Kartik Sharma (83, 79).