Indian Shooter Heena Sidhu clinches Gold at ISSF World Cup 2013

Munich (Germany): Indian Pistol Shooter Heena Sidhu has won Gold medal in 10m Air Pistol Women at ISSF World Cup 2013 held at Munich in Germany on November 10. The Silver was won by ARUNOVIC Zorana of Serbia and Bronze by CHAIKA Viktoria of Belarus.

Earlier, Heena beat double Olympic Champion Guo Wenjun from China and multiple Olympic medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine in a stiff competition.

As per records, she is the first Indian to clinch a Gold with Pistol. Ealier, Anjali Bhagwat [2002} and Gagan Narang [2008] had won Gold in small bore rifle shooting.

The ISSF World Cup is held once a year and features only top 10 shooters of the world. Heena shot 384 points in the qualification stage and was in third position behind Ukraine’s Olena but ahead of China’s Guo, who was placed ninth, and Serb Zorana, who was placed sixth after the qualification stage, the release said. The Indian shooter mad a shaky start in the final.

She shot a 9.3 followed by another 9.3 and slipped to eighth position after the first two shots. But Heena picked up the gauntlet in right earnest and proceeded to execute 15 consecutive bulls eye to end the competition with a huge lead of 5.2 points. So high was her level of commitment and determination, that even after having reached the top position midway through the finals, she did not relax even once and kept increasing her lead

Heena was not in the initial list of shooters selected for the World Cup finals and was in the wait list based on her 8th place finish in Changwon. She got a last minute invite to Munich when three other shooters withdrew from the event.

She had earlier won silver in 2009 ISSF WorldCup in Beijing, and a Gold and Silver in 2010 Commonwealth Games held at New Delhi. She also won Silver at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

The 23 Year Old Pistol Shooter was born in Ludhiana, Punjab and resides in Patiala. She had studied BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) and is quite fond of painting and sketching.

In February 2013, she married Ronak Pandit, who is the son of former international shooter Ashok Pandit. The Wedding took place on February 7 in a ceremony in Panchkula.

Her Husband Raunak Pandit is also a professional shooter and had won the gold medal in the 25 M pistol event along with Samresh Jung in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.