Shooter Heena Sidhu not only clinched the gold medal in the 10m air pistol but also set a new national final record with her effort at the 60th National shooting championships at the Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex in Balewadi on Wednesday.
The Olympian who already holds the finals world record (203.8) in what is her pet event, scored 201.9 to surpass the previous record set by Malaika Goel (201.1) in 2013. She beat second-placed Yasha Singh (197.8) of Rajasthan by a huge margin of 4.1 points, giving a hint of her supremacy in the category.
However in the qualifications earlier, she was eighth in the roster just ahead of Railways' Priyanka Susvirkar who was placed seventh with 12 inner 10s. Heena had to rely on her superior 11 inner-10-ring scores in comparison with Delhi’s Sanjana Sherawat (8 inner 10s) and Madhya Pradesh’s Kajal Patel (6 inner 10s), who also finished with a qualification score of 378 and were placed ninth and tenth respectively.
The finals was a different story all-together as the 27-year old shot like a champion and maintained her lead from the very first shot itself. Stealing the limelight were young guns in the likes of Muskan (youth), Yasha (junior) and Harshada Nivathe (junior) and Yashaswini Deswal (junior) who gave tough competition to their two seniors, Heena and Harveen Srao. Harveen eventually claimed a sixth-place finish with her score of 115.1 points.
Sprinted off the blocks
Heena put forth a statement of intent in the opening two series when competitors had to shoot three successive shots in a time limit of two and half minutes. With four scores above the 10 plus mark, she secured an early lead with 61.2 points.
Yasha, who clinched the silver medal was not in the fray until her 10th shot, when she was on fourth position. But the Rajasthani girl backed herself up and shot some 10’s including a 10.8 on her 16th shot to surge ahead in the ranking. She left Yashaswini behind for bronze with 176.7.
"When I saw my scores after 10 shots, I told myself to calm myself. I was a little nervous before the match as shooting besides Heena Sidhu was a big thing. I was prepared for fourth position, but then I had a chance of winning here. I gave my best, but it was still four points less than Heena," Yasha, who also won junior bronze an hour before the senior match was quoted as saying to the Times of India.
Results of the Women’s 10m air pistol: 1. Heena Sidhu (ONGC) 201.9 (378), 2. Yasha Singh (Raj) 197.8 (380), 3. Yashaswini Singh (Har) 176.7 (380.0), 4. Muskan (Har) 167.4 (379.0) 5. Harshada Nithave (Mah) 132.8 (382.0), 6. Harveen Sarao (Pun) 115.1 (380), 7. Shreya Gawande (Mah) 91.9 (379.0), 8. Priyanka Susvirkar (Rlys) 72.9 (378.0).
