Heena Sidhu banking on 'mental reserves'

NEW DELHI: Two-time Olympian and former world No. 1 Heena Sidhu is on a break these days. She wants to reinvent her shooting and build on her mental reserves before participating in qualification tournaments for the 2020 Olympics.The 29-year-old's cabinet has all the medals - gold in World Cup and Commonwealth Games or Asiad silver - except a medal at the Olympics.The last 3-4 tournaments she has participated in haven't yielded desired results. Other young pistol shooters like Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh have been breathing down her neck with admirable performances at the international level. Heena knows she has to reboot her game in order to keep pace with changing times. "My scores have been a little low in the past 3-4 World Cups. So right now what I'm doing is take a break from shooting. My priority is to reinvent my shooting," Heena told TOI."I have been shooting well, just that haven't been able to translate my practice scores into match scores. That's why the break. In order to shoot high scores in matches, you need to take a breather. It's important to build your mental reserves to do well in important tournaments," she added.Though Heena acknowledged the competition she is facing in 10m air pistol event with the arrival of Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh, she refused to play up any kind of rivalry. "The competition is healthy. We've a lot of youngsters coming up and shooting good scores, but at the same time my competition is not with people from India - my competition has always been out of India. How to be the best in the world," she said.Consistently hitting high scores in the lead-up to qualification tournaments for the Olympics will be Heena's primary concern. "Qualification for the Olympics is always tough. You have to work on the process and concentrate on your technique, and if you're able to do that you'll definitely hit high scores. And if you hit high scores, you'll definitely qualify," the two-time World Cup gold medallist stressed.Talking about the missing Olympic medal in her cabinet, Heena expressed, "Every athlete's dream is to win an Olympic medal. Every athlete aspires to and works hard for that Olympic medal. I hope to tick that unchecked box next year."