Plzen Shooting Grand Prix: Heena Sidhu clinches bronze as India claim seven medals in event

Heena Sidhu claimed a bronze medal in the women’s 10m Air Pistol as India ended the Grand Prix of Liberation Plzen 2017 Shooting Championships with seven medals.

On the final day of the championship, Heena shot 218.8 in the eight-woman final, won by Greek shooter Anna Korakaki, who had won a gold medal in the 25m pistol and a bronze medal in the 10m air pistol at Rio Games.

Anna shot 246.3 to finish ahead of Germany’s rising star, 21-year-old Michelle Skeries, who took silver with a score of 237.8.

India returned from the championship in Czech Republic with a haul of one gold, two silver and four bronze medals. With the second stage of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup for Rifle and Pistol slated for later this month in Munich, this performance should do the squad a world of good.

India’s Shri Nivetha Paramanantham had also qualified for the women’s 10m Air Pistol finals but finished fourth behind Heena with a finals score of 198.7. Earlier Shri Nivetha had qualified for the finals in 3rd position ahead of Heena who qualified in 5th position, but used her class and finals experience to finish among the medals.

Indians made it to four more finals with Pooja Ghatkar finishing fourth in Women’s 10m Air Rifle, Gurpreet Singh finishing 6th in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol which was won eventually by Germany’s Olympic champion Christian Reitz and Chain Singh finishing seventh in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions final.

Former Olympic bronze medallist, Gagan Narang, who competed for the first time for his shooting academy Gun for Glory (the event allowed private participation at own cost) finished 4th in the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone event while Sushil Ghaley representing India finished fifth.

There were also impressive performances by the Indian men’s 25m Standard Pistol team, which swept the medals in the event, with Neeraj Kumar winning gold, Harpreet Singh silver and Deepak Sharma the bronze medal. Veteran women’s rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant also won silver in the 50m Rifle Prone event while Pemba Tamang won bronze in the Men’s 25m Centre Fire Pistol.