Heena Sidhu misses final in Munich World Cup

Heena Sidhu shot 384, but missed the women’s air pistol final by one point in the shooting World Cup that concluded in Munich on Wednesday.

Heena Sidhu... missed the air pistol final by a point and ended up 12th in the event.

Heena Sidhu shot 384, but missed the women’s air pistol final by one point in the shooting World Cup that concluded in Munich on Wednesday.

Shooting the first relay in a field of 104, Heena shot a series of 94, 98, 96 and 96. With the advantage of knowing the required score, shooters in the second relay ensured that the score of 384 would not make the final. There were four with that score and Heena, who holds the final world record at 203.8 from November 2013, finished 12th.

While Asian Games medallist Shweta Singh (378) and P. Shri Nivetha (377) were below their best, Olympian Annu Raj Singh shot 380 in the MQS section.

Bobana Velickovic of Serbia, who just about made the final with a score of 385, beat Sonia Franquet of Spain by 0.6 point to clinch the gold, while Olympic champion in Beijing and London, Guo Wenjun (385) of China, finished seventh.

Meanwhile, in men’s rifle 3-position event, Chain Singh finished 38th with a score of 1170, which was four points below the score that he had shot a day earlier during the elimination round.

Swapnil Kusale came up with a morale-boosting performance of 1172, with scores of 393 in kneeling, 398 in prone and 381 in standing positions.

Olympian Sanjeev Rajput, who could not make the team for the Rio Olympics despite winning the Olympic quota, was below par during the elimination round, and an uncharacteristically low score of 1147, with 366 in standing, meant that he did not make the cut for the qualification phase.

World and Olympic medallist Gagan Narang had opted out of both air rifle and rifle 3-position events owing to an injury, and had shot only the prone event.

World and Olympic champion Matthew Emmons of the US shot a final world record of 464.1 to clinch the gold after having topped qualification with a score of 1184. The reigning World champion in the event, Zhu Qinan of China, shot 1178 and missed the last spot for the final on the basis of less number of inner-10s.

The results:

Men — 50m rifle 3-position: 1. Matthew Emmons (US) 464.1 (FWR) (1184); 2. Milenko Sebic (Srb) 460.1 (1183); 3. Gernot Rumpler (Aut) 448.0 (1178); 38. Chain Singh 1170. MQS : Swapnil Kusale 1172.

Women — 10m air pistol: 1. Bobana Velickovic (Srb) 199.7; 2. Sonia Franquet (Esp) 199.1; 3. Zhang Mengxue (Chn) 179.4; 12. Heena Sidhu 384; 47. Shweta Singh 378; 52. P. Shri Nivetha 377. MQS: Annu Raj Singh 380; Anisa Sayyed 369.