So far, India's shooting stars have stayed rooted on earth in this Rio 2016 Olympics, failing to win a medal, with Abhinav Bindra coming the closest, on Monday, when he finished fourth in the men's 10m Air Rifle. Heena Sidhu was one of India's medal hopes in the women's shooting section going into Rio 2016, and after a disappointing first event, the 26-year-old will hope for a change of fortunes when she represents the nation in the women's 25m pistol.
Sidhu missed out on a place in the final of the 10m Air Pistol, after managing just a 14th-place finish in the qualifying round, six places off the placings for the final.
This will be Heena Sidhu's second and last chance of making an impact at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and giving India their first medal, and the first hurdle she needs to cross, of course, is in qualifying. Be consistent, stay calm under pressure and fire those shots with precision should be her mantra going into the 25m pistol event.
India have usually had multiple participants in the shooting events – Bindra reached the final before missing out on a medal by a whisker on Monday, while Gagan Narang failed to even qualify for the final eight in the same event – but the Indian flag will be flown on her own by Heena Sidhu for this 25m pistol event.
Sidhu needs to find her mojo amongst 39 other contestants in the 25m pistol, with very few places up for grabs in the final. The Indian struggled to recover from a poor start in the 10m Air Pistol a couple of days back, and another slow beginning is something Heena cannot afford.
Performing well from the first shot will also help her regain some confidence, which would have been shot after failing to make it to the final in her last event. India desperately need some sort of medal lift in these Rio 2016 Olympics, and Heena Sidhu will hope she is the one to provide them with that.
Where to Watch Live
The 25m Pistol qualifying event is scheduled for a 5.30 p.m. IST (9 a.m. local time, 1 p.m. BST) start. The rapid event is at 8.30 p.m. IST (12 p.m. local time), with the semifinals, bronze medal match and gold medal match at 12.a.m. IST (3.30 p.m. local time), 12.15 a.m. IST (3.45 p.m. local time) and 12.25 a.m. IST (3.55 p.m. local time) respectively. Below is the live streaming and TV information for the shooting event.
India: TV: Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3 and DD National. Live Streaming: Hotstar.
UK and Ireland: TV: BBC. Live Streaming: BBCiPlayer.
Brazil: TV: SporTV, Globo, Fox Sports and ESPN.
USA: TV: NBC. Live Streaming: NBC Sports live extra, NBC Olympics and NBC Olympics app.
Canada: TV: TSN, RDS. Live Streaming: TSN TV.
Australia: TV: Channel 7, 7Two and 7Mate. Live Streaming: Channel 7 online.
Germany: TV: ARD and ZDF.
Middle East: TV: Bein Sports Arabia.
