Palembang (Indonesia), Experienced Indian shooter Heena Sidhu earned her first individual medal in the Asian Games as she got a bronze medal in the women’s 10m Air Pistol event here on Friday.
Heena scored 219.2 in the final. Qian Wang of China won gold with a Games record score of 240.3, while South Korea’s Kim Minjung took the silver with a score of 237.6.
Manu Bhaker, the other Indian to reach the final, finished at a disappointing fifth position with a score of 176.2.
Manu was, however, in promising form during the qualification round earlier in the day. She scored 574 to qualify for the final at the third spot.
Heena struggled during qualification and could only manage the seventh spot after scoring 571.
Wang had topped the qualification round with 580 points while Kim (575) was second.
In the finals, while Qian, Minjung and Golnoush Sebghatollahi of Iran scored 101.7, 100.9, 99.5, to set the pace early at the end of five-shot first two series, Heena, with a score of 96.7, was even behind Manu, who scored 97.5.
However, Heena peaked when the two-shot series started. In the third series, with a score of 20.4, she took her total to 117.1, as she overtook Manu, who stumbled in the third series with a score of 18.8 which gave her a total of 116.3.
At this point, Heena was fourth, behind Qian, Minjung and Sebghatollahi, who was third with 118.4 total.
In the fourth series, Heena managed to throw away Sebghatollahi from the third spot, with score of 20.9 giving her a total of 138.0, while the Iranian had 137.1 and Manu had 136.8. Qian and Minjung maintained their top two positions with scores of 142.0 and 140.2 respectively.
Heena maintained her grip on the third spot after the fifth series, which gave her 20.5 for a total of 158.5. Sebghatollahi had 157.9 in total, while Manu had 156.5.
At the end of the sixth series, Sebghatollahi regained her third spot, with Heena slipping to the fourth spot as the series gave her 19.8 for 178.3 total. Sebghatollahi struck 20.5 from the series to get to 178.4 total.
Manu, with a total of 176.2 was eliminated from the competition, leaving the four shooters to fight it out for the four medals.
The seventh series proved to be disastrous for Sebghatollahi, who only managed to score 14.5 that gave her a total of 192.9. Heena made the most of the opportunity as she shot 20.5 to take her total to 198.8. After this series, Iran’s Sebghatollahi was eliminated, meaning that Heena was assured of a medal.
At the end of the seventh series, Qian and Minjung had respective totals of 200.4 and 199.8 — a healthy lead over Heena.
In the eight series, Heena shot 20.4 to take her total to 219.2, while Qian and Minjung sat at an identical total of 219.7. It meant Heena settled for the bronze medal as she got her third Asian Games medal.
She won a silver in the 10m air pistol team event in 2010 before winning a bronze in the 25m air pistol team event in 2014.
Qian and Minjung went on to fight for another series. Minjung stumbled in the final and ninth series with a score of 17.9, as Qian got 20.6 to clinch the gold medal.
