Another disappointment met the faces of Indian supporters as shooter Heena Sidhu on the 14th spot with a tally of 380 points in the qualifying round of the women’s 10m air pistol event, thereby getting knocked out of medal contetion. The 26-year old shooter could not advance to the final round of the event and it saw another medal contender for India bite the dust.
The shooter started off the event slowly and could manage only 94 points from her first series of 10 shots and the second series could also not be a turning point for Sidhu as she managed to score only 95 points. The young Indian was not going too well as she was ranked 26th after the second series of shots. But Sidhu stepped up her game when required to improve her ranking. She produced a good turn-around and managed 96 points from her third series of 10 shots – placing her at the 19th spot in the qualification rankings.
However, it was the fourth series of shots which turned out to be crucial as the 27th ranked shooter in the world required consistent 10 pointers to get into the top-8 in order to qualify for the final round. Heena did shoot with concentration and strategy to bag 95 points in her fourth series but it was not enough to get her to the final round as she finished at the 14th spot. She finished the event with a tally of 380 points.
The other impressive performers from the qualification round were Russia’s duo of Vitalina Batsarashkina who scored 98, 98, 95 and 99 in her four series of rounds and Ekaterina Korshunova who scored an outstanding 97, 96, 98 and 96 points. World number one Ukraine’s Olena Kostevych started the event very slowly and could never recover as she finished at the 28th spot. Here is the list of the top eight shooters who qualified for the final round of the women’s 10m air pistol event:
Vitalina Batsarashkina (Russia) – 390 points
Ekaterina Korshunova (Russia) – 387 points
Anna Korakaki (Greece) – 387 points
Alejandra Zavala Vazquez (Mexico) – 387 points
Afaf Elhodhod (Egypt) – 386 points
Bobana Velickovic (Serbia) – 385 points
Mengxue Zhang (China) – 384 points
Sonia Franquet (Spain) – 384 points
