B SHRIKANT

GOLDCOAST: An otherwise steady shooter, Heena Sidhu has often faltered in the final. For some reason or the other, she has not been consistent with her performances in the deciding round.

It was something that she has been working on to improve. Her coach and husband Ronak Pandit concentrated on simulating the worst possible conditions during training so that Heena could be ready for every eventuality.

“In the last two months we simulated the worst conditions for her. We created windy conditions, made lot of noise and disturbance during training. The idea was to help her be ready for all situations and shoot her best,” said Ronak.

But both could not have imagined the dramatic situation Heena had to overcome here on Tuesday on her way to gold medal in the women’s 25m sports pistol competition, with a new Commonwealth Games record. This was her second medal, adding to the silver she won in 10m air pistol two days ago.

Heena had to shoot under tremendous pressure in the qualifying stage as she was hit by an empty shell from the next station and could not take two shots.

The 25m sports pistol event is held in two stages --- precision and rapid fire rounds to test the shooters ability to the fullest.

At the Belmont Shooting Complex on Tuesday, Heena was placed seventh after the precision round, in which she was bothered by the windy conditions and also made a slight wrong adjustment to her gun.

Things got more dramatic in the rapid fire stage as Heena was hit on her arm by an empty shell from a nearby station and could not take her shot. “As we can claim relief for disturbance, we lodged a protest. The officials admitted it and allowed her to

She attempted the last 10 shots of her qualifying series alone with the competitors and spectators watching her. She shot superbly.

RONAK PANDIT, On the disturbance