61st National shooting championships: Manu Bhaker pips Heena Sidhu to 10m air pistol gold

Haryana's Manu Bhaker set a new national record to defeat Heena Sidhu and clinch the gold in the 10m air pistol event. Bhaker went on to win three more golds at the 61st National shooting championships.

Manu Bhaker won the 10m air pistol event by setting a new national record of 242.3. (File Image)

Teenage sensation Manu Bhaker (Haryana) handed down a shock defeat to Olympian and former World No. 3 Heena Sidhu (ONGC) in the women’s 10m air pistol in the 61st National shooting championships at the National Games shooting range here on Sunday.

The prodigy, who earlier this year had to undergo a struggle to get an arms licence, shot a new national record as she pushed Heena to the second spot after getting to the lead in the second round of the final competition. Manu was only fourth going into the final as she trailed Aakanksha Bansal (Uttar Pradesh, 384), Heena (384) and P. Shri Nivetha (Tamil Nadu, 383) with a total of 382.

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However, in the final, Manu ran close to Heena through the first round of five shots before jumping ahead. She fell back marginally to her famed rival in the third round and stayed right on top through the remaining series to return with a record total of 242. 3 points and erase the previous record of 240.8 set by Heena in Brisbane earlier this this year.

Heena registered a card of 240.6 as she finished second while Shri Nivetha took bronze with 217.4.

Manu capped her sensational win with gold medals in both the junior and youth girls sections, with National records to boot, and thereafter also collared the junior 10m air pistol mixed team gold in
partnership with Abhishek Arya.