Rio Olympics 2016: Indians continue to misfire as Heena Sidhu finishes 20th

Shooter Heena Sidhu, from whom a lot was expected in the run-up to the ongoing Olympic Games here, put up yet another flop show to finish a distant 20th in the 25m pistol event for women on Tuesday.

In the 30-shot precision round, Heena accumulated 286 points out of a possible 300 with series scores of 95, 95 and 96 that pushed her in the rear of the queue.

The rapid fire segment, also of 30 shots, panned out similarly as the former world number secured 290 to total 576 with 16x.

Heena, who had qualified by winning the gold in the Asia qualifiers, had failed to progress to the final of the 10m air pistol held on Sunday.

India’s overall display in shooting, considered among its main medal hunting ground, has not lived up to expectations so far with the best effort coming from Beijing Olympic Games champion rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra yesterday, a fourth place finish in the men’s 10m air rifle event.

Others, including another major medal hope Jitu Rai, had failed to sparkle thus far. Rai flopped in the 10m air pistol event but has the 50m event to look forward to now.

Another experienced campaigner, 2012 London Games bronze medal winner Gagan Narang, performed poorly in the 10m air rifle yesterday to finish 23rd.

He would be keen to make amends in the 50m range where he will be seen in action in rifle prone (August 12) and three position (August 14).