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Heena Sidhu poses with her medal and award after taking gold in the 10M Air Pistol event at the ISSF World Cup Final in Munich, Germany
24-year-old Indian pistol shooter Heena Sidhu won her first ever international medal yesterday when she claimed gold in the 10M Air Pistol World Cup final beating the reigning world champion Zorana Arunovic of Serbia by over five points.
At the ISSF World Cup Final in Munich, Germany, Sidhu came through a remarkable series of events to beat 26-year-old Arunovic, the reigning world champion, in the final clash with a score of 203.8 points as compared to the Serbian’s 198.6 points.
Sidhu before the completion had not expected to even be on the podium before the tournament started. The young shooter had not won a world-level competition previously and her best showings until yesterday were two eighth place finishes in the events at Changwon, Korea and Munich last May.
It was all the more memorable for Sidhu was not even on the initial list of eight shooters who had qualified to participate in the World Cup Final event in Germany. But three of those athletes pulled out, each citing personal reasons, which opened the door for Sidhu due to the points that she had earned at the two events mentioned above.
“This medal is a bit of surprise. I was not even supposed to participate in this World Cup Final. The qualified athlete could not come here, and the following two qualified shooters withdraw their participation. I was the next in the qualification line and I picked up the chance. I had to do my visa and arrange a flight to come here in two days!” said Sidhu.
“There’s a lot of work behind this Cup. I started shooting because my family is involved in the shooting sport, and I became a professional athlete when I found out that I was good at it.”
“I have been training for years without winning any world-level medal. Today was just my day: everything came together.”
“I love this sport. Shooting is all about yourself. By practicing this sport, you get to know yourself. It’s all about learning how to keep it cool when the pressure is rising, building up concentration, and learning how to schedule your daily work… it reflects on every aspect of your life.”
Defending champion Arunovic, currently ranked #2 in the world, fought off the challenge of Belarusian Viktoria Chaika who finished third with 178.6 points, to take the silver medal.
