India’s first gold medal of this Tuesday has come from the shooting arena with Heena Sidhu bagging her second medal in Gold Coast.
The 25 meter pistol final saw Heena near the elimination mark at one point but the former world number recovered at just the right time and soldiered on towards the gold.
Her total score of 38 is also a new Commonwealth Games record. Elena Galiabovitch of Australia scroed 35 to take silver while Malaysia's Alia Sazana Azahari got bronze with 26.
This was the 11th gold medal for India in this year's CWG and Heena's first individual gold in three editions of this quadrennial event.
Heena had earlier won the silver in the 10m air pistol final where India completed at 1-2 on the podium with 16-year-old Manu Bhaker bagging the gold.
The fact that Heena managed to emerge champion on Tuesday despite an injury in her trigger finger, speaks volumes of her determination and makes the victory all the more creditable.
Annu Raj Singh, the other Indian in the fray, fizzled out in the final after an excellent performance during qualification, to take the overall sixth place.
Elena was the fastest off the blocks in the final and Heena was trailing behind the Australian till the fifth series.
Heena did well to close the gap by scoring with all her five shots in the fifth series before another perfect score in the sixth saw her take the joint lead.
The Indian took sole lead after the first shot in the seventh series and subsequently increased the gap.
With a two-point lead at the end of the seventh series, Heena found the target in four of the five shots in the eighth to be ahead by three points. Although the Australian managed to close the gap by one point in the ninth series, Heena held her nerves in the 10th and final series to emerge champion.
Earlier, Annu finished the qualification stage at the second spot with a total of 584 points. Heena was third with 579. Xiu Hong Teh of Singapore topped the qualification standings with 584. Annu had taken pole position at the end of the Precision round with 293. She managed 291 in the Rapid round while Xiu scored 293. Annu registered a series of 96, 99 and 98 in the Precision round. She was consistent in the Rapid round as well with scores of 98, 96 and 97.
Xiu, who was second after the Precision round with 291, registered 96, 100 and 97 in the Rapid stage to snatch the lead.
Heena meanwhile, started slowly before climbing up the standings with an awesome show in the Rapid round. She was decidedly below par in the Precision round and was lagging at the seventh spot with 286.
Heena struggled with her opening couple of shots in the Precision round with disappointing efforts of 95 and 93 before recovering somewhat with a 98 in her third and last attempt.
Heena started the Rapid round poorly as well as she could only manage a 95in her opening attempt. But she saved her best for her last two shots, firing consecutive scores of 99 to zoom to the third spot.
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