Heena Sidhu held her nerve as she clinched a bronze medal in a topsy-turvy women’s 10m air pistol final at the ongoing Asian Games in Palembang on Friday. However, Manu Bhaker, the other Indian in the fray, was eliminated in fifth spot with a score of 176.2.

The 28-year-old shot a near-perfect 10.8 with just three shooters left in the field but a 9.6 in the next attempt dashed her hopes of a better finish at the Jakabaring Shooting Range.

Earlier in the qualifications, she had made a solid comeback after languishing at 13th and 17th spots. She eventually made the cut on the seventh spot in the eight-shooter final with 571 points. The 16-year-old Commonwealth Games gold-medallist had finished third with a score of 574.

In the final, Sidhu shot a total of 219.3 and could have challenged for gold after her superb 10.8 which brought her within 0.1 of the leaders. But the second shot of her last series let her down.

However, she will be happy with her first individual medal at the Asiad after winning a team silver in 2010 and bronze in 2014 in the team events.

Her strong performance comes on the back of controversy heading into the continental championship. The controversy was over her exclusion from the air pistol mixed team, an event she has won a World Cup medal in.