Kuwait has been a happy hunting ground for Heena Sidhu. She had won a gold medal in the same venue last year. She did the same on Friday by becoming the Asian Champion in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship in Kuwait.
Heena had previously won a gold medal in Kuwait at the Asian Airgun Championship in 2014 and bronze at the same venue as a junior shooter in 2007.
Heena, who also won a gold at the 8th Asian Airgun Championship at home recently, shot an excellent 198.2 in the finals to claim the gold today. Mongolian Gundegma Otreyad won the silver with a score of 198.0 while Jangmi Kim of Korea won the bronze with a score of 176.2.
Heena shot a score of 382 (97,97,94,94) to qualify for the finals. Heena claimed an early lead and shot very well to maintain it till the very end. She lost the lead only once to the Mongolian shooter and came down to the second spot after shooting 9.6 on the 17th and 18th shot. Heena however did not give up her fight for the gold till the very end and scored a 10.0 in her last shot to claim the title by a margin of 0.2 points ahead of the Mongolian.
Unfortunately since the Olympic qualification status of this competition was revoked by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), India lost a great opportunity today to win an Olympic quota for Rio 2016. However Heena said, she had no regrets for quota at all.
Speaking to indianshooting.com, Heena said, “I have no regrets for quota at all. My job remains the same no matter what the stakes are. I am happy about the medal and I did not give up till the end of both the qualification and the finals but the performance could have been much better. I will be working hard. I am still a work in progress and I am still learning and this match has definitely taught me a lot”.
Just won the Gold guys!!! Feeling ecstatic about the medal but performance could have been better…Will be working harder!!! #asianchampion
ÔÇö Heena sidhu (@HeenaSidhu10) November 6, 2015
In the Junior Women’s 10m Air Pistol, Shri Nivetha Paramanantham too won a gold with a score of 195.8 in the finals. She edged out Shinemurun Nyamdorj of Mongolia (195.4) and Heesun Kim of Korea (174.4), who won the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Shreya Gawande, Shri Nivetha and Oshin Tawani also combined to win the team gold with a total score of 1114. Mongolia won the silver while Korea bagged the bronze.
Besides, the Indian trio of Nayani Bharadwaj (374), Harshada Nithave (374) and Malaika Goel (365) also won the a gold in the team event of the Youth Women’s 10m Air Pistol.
In the Junior Men’s 25m Pistol, India’s Shivam Shukla won gold with a score of 576. Korea’s Jungwoo Park (575) and Jaekyoon Lee (572) claimed the silver and bronze respectively.
Shivam, Arjun Das and Achal Pratap Grewal also won the silver medal in the team event.
Meanwhile in the junior men’s skeet competition, Angad Bajwa secured the individual gold.
The team of Angad Bajwa (121), Anant Naruka (112) and Arjun Mann (114) shot a total of 347 to walk away with the team gold also in this category.
In all, India won seven gold, a silver and a bronze on the fourth day, to take its overall tally to 14 gold, 8 silver and 8 bronze medals.
The Results:
Men’s Skeet: 1. Saud Habib (KUW) 12 (14) 120; 2. Saif Bin Futtais (UAE) 11 (15) 121; 3. Tang Shuai (CHN) 14(4) 13 (120); 4. Jin Di (CHN) 14(3) 13 (121); 15. Man Singh 118; 20. Amrinder Cheema 117; 22. Smit Singh 115.
Team: 1. China 361; 2. Kuwait 357; 3. UAE 357; 6. India 350.
Junior Men’s Skeet: 1. Angad Vir Singh Bajwa 13 (15) 121; 2. Naser Almutairi (KUW) 12 (13) 113; 3. Anant Jeet Singh Naruka 14 (12) 112; 4. Arjun Mann 12 (12) 114. Team: 1. India 347; 2. Kuwait 320; 3. Qatar 297.
Junior Men’s Sports Pistol: 1. Shivam Shukla 576; 2. Park Jungwoo (KOR) 575; 3. Lee Jaekyoon (KOR) 572; 4. Arjun Das 571; 8. Achal Pratap Grewal 565. Team: 1. Korea 1713; 2. India 1712; 3. Thailand 1679.
Women’s 10m Air Pistol: 1. Heena Sidhu 198.2 (382); 2. Gundegmaa Otryad (MGL) 198.0 (381); 3. Kim Jangmi (KOR) 176.2 (383); 13. Shweta Singh 380; 27. Yashaswini Singh Deswal 372. OOC: Gauri Sheoran 377; Annu Raj Singh 372.
Team: 1. Korea 1145; 2. Chinese Taipei 1142; 3. China 1140; 6. India 1134.
Junior Women’s 10m Air Pistol: 1. P. Shri Nivetha 195.8 (371); 2. Shinemurun Nyamdorj (MGL) 195.4 (375); 3. Kim Heesun (KOR) 174.4 (375); 8. Shreya Gawande 73.9 (376); 10. Oshin Tawani 367. OOC: Prerna Gupta 377. Team: 1. India 1114; 2. Mongolia 1108; 3. Korea 1107.
Youth Women’s 10m Air Pistol: 1. Sim Sooyoung (KOR) 197.0 (374); 2. Haniyeh Rostamiyan (IRI) 196.1 (378); 3. Min Jeoungmin (KOR) 177.2 (368); 6. Harshada Nithave 114.8 (374); 7. Nayani Bhardwaj 94.5 (374); 11. Malaika Goel 365.
Team: 1. India 1113; 2. Korea 1111; 3. Iran 1099.
Junior Women’s 50m Rifle Three Position: 1. Najmeh Khedmati (IRI) 458.1 (585); 2. Fatemeh Karamzadeh (IRI) 455.1 (579); 3. Shi Mengyao (CHN) 441.2 (583); 4. Gaayathri Nithyanandam 428.2 (579); 13. Chahat Deep Kaur 562; 17. Sandhya Winfred 547. OOC: V. Srinithi Abirami 563. Team: 1. Iran 1724 (68x); 2. Mongolia 1724 (60x); 3. Korea 1704; 4. India 1688.
Women’s Skeet: 1. Israpalmprasertsuk (THA) 14(4) 15 (71); 2. Lin Piao Piao (CHN) 14(3) 15 (70); 3. Wei Ning (CHN) 15 (13) 70; 4. Eman All Shamaa (KUW) 11 (12) 71; 11. Rashmee Rathore 67; 20. Saniya Sheikh 63. Team: 1. Thailand 211; 2. China 209; 3. Kuwait 201.