Heena Sidhu

Heena Sidhu

Personal information
Nationality	India
Ethnicity	Punjabi
Citizenship	Indian
Born	29 August 1989 Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Residence	Mumbai, India[1]
Education	Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS)
Alma mater	Yadavindra Public School, Patiala Gian Sagar Medical Institute.
Occupation	Sportsman (Shooter)
Height	163 cm (5 ft 4 in) (As of April 2013)
Weight	50.5 kg (111 lb) (As of April 2013)
Spouse(s)	Ronak Pandit (m. 2013)
Sport
Rank	No.1 (7 April 2014)
Medal record ISSF World Cup Finals 2013 Germany Women’s 10m Air Pistol Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Team) 2010 Delhi Women’s 10m Air Pistol Asian Games 2010 Guangzhou Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2014 Incheon Women’s 25m Air Pistol (Team) Polish Open Poland Women’s 10m Air Pistol Asian Shooting Championships 2015 Kuwait Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2007 Kuwait Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Maiden) Asian Air Gun Championship 2009 Doha Women’s 10m Air Pistol South Asian Championship 2009 Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2009 Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Team) ISSF World Cup 2009 Beijing Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2014 Fort Benning,USA Women’s 10m Air Pistol Munich Open 2009 Germany Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2009 Germany Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Team) South Asian Federation Shooting Championship 2008 Islamabad Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2008 Islamabad Women’s 10m Air Pistol Hungarian Open 2008 Hungary Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2008 Hungary Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2008 Hungary Women’s 10m Air Pistol 2008 Hungary Women’s 10m Air Pistol

Heena Sidhu  pronunciation  is an Indian sport shooter. She is the first Indian Pistol shooter to be Ranked World No.1 (as on 7 April 2014)^[2] by ISSF. She is the first Indian Pistol shooter to have won a Gold medal in the 2013 ISSF World Cup Finals -Pistol in 10 metre Air Pistol event. She thus became the third Indian shooter after Anjali Bhagwat (2003) and Gagan Narang (2008) to win a Gold medal in a Rifle/Pistol World Cup Finals.

She is also the first Indian shooter who has appeared on the ISSF magazine's cover page for the first time ever since the National Rifle Association of India was formed on 17 Apr 1951. Sidhu is the Finals World record holder in 10 metre air pistol event with a final score of 203.8.^[3]

Personal life

Heena Sidhu, completed her graduation in BDS(Bachelor of Dental Surgery) in the year 2013 and is also quite fond of painting and sketching.She comes from an affluent Jat family. Her Uncle Inderjit Sidhu is a professional Gun-Smith and a Guns customizer, which was indeed a critical variable in making her take up shooting as a professional Sport. Her Father, Mr.Rajbir Sidhu has always been very supportive, being a National shooter himself, he supported her in pursuing her dream of making her country proud and taking up shooting as a profession. Along with her Father Rajbir, her younger brother Karanbir Sidhu has also represented India in the same event. Heena Sidhu got married to Ronak Pandit who himself is a pistol shooter of repute on 7 February 2013. She now lives in Goregaon Mumbai.

Career

Sidhu has been a practicing shooter since 2006 when she was in 12th standard and by the end of that year she made it into the National Junior Team, and also entered into the Senior Team with in months. Although, Sidhu started practicing shooting quite late but began participating in different competitions from 2007. She played for the Patiala Club and is right handed shooter with right being her dominant eye. Heena, along with Annu Raj Singh and Sonia Rai, won a silver medal in the Women's 10m Air Pistol Team event at the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China.

Her other notable achievements include winning silver medal in ISSF World Cup 2009 at Beijing^[4] and 1st position in the women's 10m air pistol at the national championship 2009, Kerala.

She along with Annu Raj Singh won the gold medal in women's Pairs 10 metre air pistol at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.^[5] Heena (384) and Annu (375) won the 14th gold medal for India from the shooting range. She also won a silver medal in the singles event.

Sidhu made it to the Indian squad that represented the nation in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.^[6] She competed in the Women's 10 metre air pistol event, finishing 12th in the qualification round. The 2012 London Olympic Games was Sidhu's first Olympic Games.

Sidhu was also a part of the Official London Olympic Games^[7] movie,^[8] "FIRST: The Story of the London 2012 Olympic Games" written, produced and directed by Caroline Rowland which follows a dozen first-time Olympic athletes on their journey from their homes in different corners of the globe to meet their fate in London [Olympic Games].

In 2013, she won the best medal a shooter could dream of by winning the Gold in the ISSF World Cup Finals - Rifle/Pistol in Munich, Germany.^[9] In the finals of the competition she defeated reigning World Champion Zorana Arunovic of Serbia and previous edition's champion Olena Kostevych of Ukraine by shooting 203.8 points, with huge lead margin of more than 5 points at the end of the event. International Shooting Sport Federation has decided to feature her on the cover of ISSF Journal for her incredible win.^[10] In 2014 National Shooting trials, Sidhu won by 0.1 point from another World Cup gold medalist Indian Shooter, Rahi Sarnobat in women’s air pistol event.^[11]

Sidhu qualified to her second Olympics held at Rio in 2016, in the Women's 10 metre air pistol and Women's 25 metre pistol events. She finished 14th in the Women's 10 metre air pistol and 20th in the Women's 25 metre pistol in the qualification rounds and failed to enter the finals of both the events.^[12]

Achievements and accolades

In honor of her international achievements, Heena Sidhu was conferred the prestigious Arjuna Award along with 13 other athletes at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on the 28th of August 2014 by the Hon'ble President of India.

In 2016 she has pulled out of the Asian Air Gun Championships in Tehran because Iran made wearing of ‘hijab’ mandatory for women participants.^[13][14]

References

1. Nandakumar Marar (2014-02-05). "ISSF cover girl Heena Sidhu says performance matters". The Hindu. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
2. "Shooter Heena Sidhu claims numero uno spot in 10m Air Pistol Rankings". Post.jagran.com. 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
3. Firstpost. "ISSF ratifies Heena Sidhu's world pistol record". Firstpost. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
4. "With World Cup silver, Sidhu comes of age". Indian Express. 2009-04-22. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
5. "Heena Sidhu, Anu Raj Singh bag gold in shooting". NDTV. 12 October 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
6. "Results of 52nd National Shooting Championships in Kerala". Indianshooting.com. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
7. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2291230/
8. "London 2012: Caroline Rowland's 'First' to Chronicle 12 Competitors' Stories at the Olympics". The Hollywood Reporter. 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
9. "Heena Sidhu beats World Champion to clinch Gold in Shooting World Cup finals | India at Sports". Indiaatsports.in. 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
10. "Indian Shooter Heena Sidhu Will Appear On Cover Page of ISSF Journal". Womenpla.net. 2014-01-03. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
11. "Heena Sidhu snatches victory". The Hindu. 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
12. "Rio Olympics 2016: Heena Sidhu's campaign ends after failing to qualify for 25m air pistol final". First Post. 9 August 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
13. Indian shooter Heena Sidhu refuses to wear ‘hijab’, pulls out of Asian shooting championship in Iran, India TV, 29 October 2016
14. Joshua Arpit Nath: Indian Shooter Heena Sidhu Refuses To Wear A Hijab, Withdraws From Airgun Competition In Iran, The Times of India, 29 October 2016