Heena misses Olympic berth by fraction of a point

New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) India’s young pistol shooter Heena Sidhu‘s 2012 London dreams came crashing down by a fraction of a point in the 10-metre air pistol event Monday while her teammate Annuraj Singh won the individual bronze at the Asian Shooting Championship in Doha.

Heena missed the Olympic quota by a mere 0.9 points while Annuraj, who has already qualified for the Olympics, shot the bronze with a score of 98.2 in the final after a 383 in the qualifying.

The pistol team, comprising Heena, Annuraj and Shweta Chaudhary, however, won the team gold. But for Heena, who was third after the ninth shot, the victory was not sweet as a poor last shot in the final round pushed her to the fifth position and she lost a Quota place by 0.9 points. Heena finished fifth with a qualifying score of 381 in the qualifying round and 99.2 in the final.

Another Indian in the final round, Shweta also missed the Olympic quota. She was also going great guns in the final round but a poor 7.7 in the seventh shot squandered her chances. Shweta finished sixth with a score of 383 in the qualifying and 96.6 in the final.

Meanwhile, Raj Kumari won the gold and helped the team win the bronze in the women’s 50-metre rifle prone, whic is a non-Olympic event.

Raj Kumari won the gold with a score of 594 out of 600. The teanm of Ran Kumari, Tejaswini Sawant (582) and Lajja Goswami (579) won the team bronze.

All eyes will be now former world champions Sawant and Manavjit Singh Sandhu, trap shooter, and pistol shooter Aneesa Sayeed to book Olympic berths.