Indian's star pistol shooter Heena Sidhu picked up a bronze medal in 10m air pistol women’s final at the ongoing Asian Games on Friday. Sidhu's strong comeback came after the rowers added one gold and two bronze medals earlier in the day.
It has been a good day so far with Sidhu gracing a stunning show while young Manu Bhaker fell short and finished fifth in the event. Sidhu shot successive 10s to head ahead, but had to settle for the third spot.
With this win, Sidhu added medal no. 23 for India.
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Friday's haul
India won five medals today: three bronze and two gold. The day began with one gold in the men's quadruple sculls rowing event, while the other came in men's doubles tennis -- a team of Bopanna-Sharan who bagged India’s sixth gold medal. Rowing brought two more bronze medals, and Heena Sidhu gave a bronze in shooting.
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Sidhu is a gold medlalist in 25m pistol shooting and a silver in 10m air rifle event at the Commonwealth Games in April 2018. She broke the Commonwealth Games record of 38 in winning the gold medal. The former World No. 1 and world record holder has made it to the Forbes India 30 Under 30 list 2018.
Before the Games has started, the shooter had criticised the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) for its “unjust policies”. Her comments follow the association’s move to include junior pistol shooter Manu Bhaker in the Asian Games and World Championships squads, despite her not meeting the selection requirement. Sidhu said she feels cheated by this move.
NRAI’s ranking was announced in June, according to which Heena Sidhu ranks No. 1 in the 10m air pistol and No. 2 in 25m pistol. The rule is that the top two shooters in each category will go to the Asian Games. The No. 1 shooter also gets a chance to compete in the 10m air pistol mixed doubles category. Even though Manu Bhaker shouldn’t be included in the team according to the rules, NRAI’s selection committee decided to overrule it, tweaking the policy. As a result, Sidhu was pushed to No. 2 in the 10m air pistol event and No. 3 in 25m sports pistol. She was therefore out of the 10m mixed event and excluded from the 25m pistol team.
Feature Image Credit: economictimes.indiatimes.com
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