Winning medal at CWG means a lot to me: Heena Sidhu

Few days after picking gold and silver each in the ongoing edition of the 21st Commonwealth Games, star Indian shooter Heena Sidhu on Saturday said that winning a medal in such 'important event' means a lot to her.

Seasoned campaigner Heena Sidhu first clinched silver in the women's 10m Air Pistol category before adding it with a gold in women's 25m air pistol event.

While Sidhu bagged silver with a total effort of 234 in the finals, she took away the gold medal after breaking the Commonwealth Games record with a score of 38 points in the 25m category in the Games.

Reflecting on the same, Sidhu told ANI that she is really satisfied with her performance in the prestigious quadrennial event, adding that she is now looking forward to replicate the performance in the World Championship.

"I am very happy with my performance. Commonwealth Games is an important event and winning a medal there means a lot to me. I will now look forward to Asian Games and then World Championship. For me, World Championship is very important and I will try to do best there," Sidhu said.

Meanwhile, the 28-year-old expressed her disappointment on the idea of excluding shooting from next edition of the Commonwealth Games in 2022. She said that the move would not only be a setback for shooters but that it is also going to have a huge affect on India's overall medal tally in the Games.

"We need funding to get good quality coaches and physiotherapists. Help from any corner be it Government or private sponsors matter a lot. Indian shooters are performing well this is a reason, we need to save shooting from being excluded from next Commonwealth Games. If shooting will be excluded then it will be huge setback for shooters and also it will affect the medal tally," Sidhu stated.

Earlier this year, Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) had categorically stated that the federation's stand is final and binding on all participating Commonwealth nations to exclude shooting from the 2022 CWG in Birmingham.

In the ongoing edition of the Games, India are currently standing at the third spot with 59, including 25 gold, 16 silver and 18 bronze.