Observing American sportsman's superior manoeuvring (9)
I believe the answer is:
jockeying
'manoeuvring' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to competing as well as being present participle verbs.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'observing american sportsman's superior' is the wordplay.
'observing' becomes 'eying' (I've seen this in another clue).
'american sportsman's' becomes 'jock' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'superior' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'eying' put after 'jock' is 'JOCKEYING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for jockeying that I've seen is " jostling for position".)