It was a good end to the day for Heena Sidhu as she clinched the women's 10m air pistol gold with a new national final record at the 60th National shooting championships at Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex in Balewadi, Pune. Heena, who holds the finals world record (203.8) in this event, scored 201.9 to break Malaika Goel's earlier record of 201.1 (2013) and beat Yasha Singh (197.8) of Rajasthan by 4.1 points.
Though Heena won the gold by a huge margin, it wasn't easy for her to enter the final. The former World No. 1 had to rely on inner tens to get into the final of her pet event, which included three junior and one youth category shooter. Heena had shot 378 in the qualifications, a score that was shot by four other shooters.
Railways' Priyanka Susvirkar was placed seventh with 12 inner 10s, while Heena was eighth in the qualifications with 11inner 10s. Delhi's Sanjana Sherawat (8 inner 10s) and Madhya Pradesh's Kajal Patel (6 inner 10s) were placed 9th and 10th respectively .
In the final, Heena shot like a champion, but what stole the limelight was the presence of Muskan (youth), Yasha (junior) and Harshada Nivathe (junior) and Yashaswini Deswal (junior), who gave their seniors, Heena and Harveen Srao a tough fight. Harveen finished sixth with 115.1points.
Heena maintained lead right from the first shot. Her gold was certain, but the fight was for silver and bronze. Yasha, who won silver, was on fourth position till the 10th shot. The Rajasthan shooter then shifted gear and some 10s, including a 10.8 in her 16th shot to come up in the ranking. She left Yashaswini behind for bronze with 176.7.
