Pistol shooter Heena Sidhu overcame pain to earn India a silver in the 10m air pistol event at the World Cup in Beijing. The 19-year-old Dental Surgery student also became the country's first female shooter to bag silver in a pistol event at a World Cup.
Before leaving for the World Cup, Heena was suffering from pain in the right shoulder but she paid little attention to it on Tuesday as she shot a 385 in the preliminary round and a superb 101.8 in the final to aggregate 486.8. Hu Jun of China bagged gold with 490.5 points. Sonia Rai is the other Indian pistol shooter to have won a medal, a bronze, at the 2006 World Cup in Brazil.
“Heena has made us proud. After her 23rd place in the inaugural World Cup in South Korea, she was disappointed. I was also worried as she was suffering from shoulder pain. But she overcame the disappointment to win silver,” said father Rajbir Sidhu.
"This morning, she sounded a bit jittery over the phone. I told her to just believe in her abilities. It was only because of her self-confidence that she won the medal," he added.
Heena made her international debut in the 2007 and won bronze at the Asian Championships in Kuwait. This year, she has had a superb run, clinching gold in the junior and senior categories at the National Championships.
{{/usCountry}}Heena made her international debut in the 2007 and won bronze at the Asian Championships in Kuwait. This year, she has had a superb run, clinching gold in the junior and senior categories at the National Championships.
{{/usCountry}}The Patiala girl had a fascination for guns from childhood and even tried her hand at her father's big bore gun. She took to pistol shooting for getting admission in a good dental college through the sports quota. She gained admission in the general category but has pursued the sport religiously.
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