Rio 2016: Heena Sidhu campaign ends after finishing fourth in the finals of 25m air pistol

Heena Sidhu eliminated from 25m Air Pistol event. File Pic
Heena Sidhu eliminated from 25m Air Pistol event. File Pic

Internet Desk: Former ‘world No. 1’ Heena Sidhu ended her tryst with Olympic shooting with another disastrous showing as she failed to qualify for the final round in the women’s 25m pistol event in the Olympic shooting competition on Tuesday.

Heena Sidhu, who trained extensively abroad to prepare for this mega event, had earlier finished 14th in the 10m air pistol event. The 26-year-old shooter who was sanctioned funds under SAI’s Target Olympic Podium (TOP), collapsed like most of her high profile team mates in the Olympic.

Heena’s husband and coach Ronak Pandit repetedly sought sports ministry’s intervention for more fund allocation to train abroad in a highly competitive atmosphere. The ministry buckled and sanctioned foreign exchange not only for her but also for various other world number ones and twos in the Indian shooting squad.

Heena was never in contention in the championship. She started precision round with a score of 95 while 12 others shot more than her in this round.

The Indian again fired 95 in the second series and this time number of competitors shooting more than her increased and in the third series, she fired 96 to finish precision round at 15th with a total of 286, which included eight perfect shots of 10.

In rapid round, Heena fired 290 points in three series (97, 97, 96). She again had eight perfect shots of 10. The aggregate total of 576 (286, 290) placed her at lowly 20th in the field of 40 shooters.