Joint world record holder Heena Sidhu won gold in the women's 10m Air Pistol event on the opening day of the Asian qualifiers at the Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Wednesday to book a ticket to the Rio Olympics.
Given the expectations and pressures of performing in front of her home crowd, Heena produced a clinical performance and she topped her qualifying round as well with a creditable score of 387.
Heena shot an impressive 10.3 in the second last shot of the finals to extend her lead to 1.5 points over her rival from Chinese Taipei. The Indian shot exactly 10 in her final attempt and it was enough to get her the top prize, despite a 10.2 from Tien Chia Chen.
This was India's ninth quota from shooting for the upcoming Olympic Games. However, it was a bad day at the office for the host country in men's 50-m rifle prone and women's trap as none of the Indian participants could clear the qualification hurdle.
In men's rifle prone event, young Swapnil Kusale finished 14th after aggregating 617.2 over a series of six shots. Sushil Ghale was 17th, while Surendra Singh Rathod was 24th in the pecking order.
In women's trap, where only one quota for Rio Games was on offer, Shreyashi Singh lost out in the shoot-off.
After stage 1 of men's 25-m rapid fire pistol, london Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar was placed seventh with a score of 285 including seven Xs. The other two Indian participants in the event, Neeraj Kumar and Harpreet Singh, were placed 13th and 16th, respectively.
From India's point of view, the day easily belonged to Heena, whose long wait to earn a quota for the quadrennial extravaganza ended finally in front of her home crowd.
Heena's confidence was high as she entered the final as leader of the pack with a score of 387 in the qualification.
The other Indian participants in the women's air pistol event, young Yashaswini Deshwal and Shweta Singh finished 11th and 12th, respectively.
"I was just concentrating on the process. I knew that I was doing well. I was confident that I would win a quota today," Heena said after the event.
Heena's husband Ronak Pandit, who is also her coach, was relieved as the shooter herself after the event.
Three ISSF World Cups will be held before the Rio Games get going in August, and Heena's preparation is going on the right track.
"There are three World Cups lined up but Heena will skip the first one and the fourth one. Our main focus will be on second and third World Cup. Depending on the result in these two, we will decide what to do next." said Ronak.
‘TOP scheme not implemented well’
Top Indian shooters, including Abhinav Bindra and Heena Sidhu, on Wednesday said that the government's much talked-about Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme could have been implemented better, though they called it a "well-meaning" programme.
"Nothing will happen. You just have to fight against everybody. A lot of people think that Olympic quota and medal comes just like that very easily, that one does not have to work to win it. They don't understand that going to Olympics is so difficult," Heena said at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
Heena secured an Olympic quota for the country after she led from start to finish and claimed the gold medal in women's 10-m air pistol on day one of the Asia Olympic Qualifiers for Shooting here.
The current world record holder and former world number one, Heena shot 199.4 in the eight-woman finals to finish ahead of Chinese Taipei's Tien Chia Chen (198.1) and Gim Yun Mi (177.9) of Korea.
"Fortunately, my federation (National Rifle Association of India) and family support me a lot. They can't stop me performing well," she added.
Bindra, a gold medal winner at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, felt the issue with TOP was that it was not able to deliver as per expectations.
"It is a very well-meaning programme. It's just that the delivery is sometimes a problem. The government has its own rules and regulations," Bindra said.
NRAI president Raninder Singh was also asked about the government's initiative but he gave a guarded reply.
"We have also discussed about it with the government but let's see what happens. We have not heard anything so far," he said. Under the Sports Ministry's TOP scheme, Olympic medal prospects are to be funded by the government for top class training as part of their preparations for the Games.
Heena's coach Ronak Panit, who is also her husband, said the TOP scheme is a great initiative but not being implemented well.