Argentina Shooting World Cup: Esha Singh bags silver in women's 25m pistol to give India their third medal

New Delhi, April 6: Air Pistol Mixed Team world champion Esha Singh, bagged a second individual International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup silver, tallying 35 in the women's 25m pistol final, to finish behind China's Sun Yujie, who won gold with 38 hits after the 10th and final five-shot series. Sun's compatriot Feng Sixuan won bronze. Double Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker, who also made the final, finished sixth eventually.

India now has one medal of each colour at the ongoing ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after Chain Singh won bronze in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) and Sift Kaur Samra, a gold in women's 3P on Friday.

The Indians had to first qualify for the final eight early on Saturday morning, and Manu, who was fourth overnight, returned a pleasing 294 in the second rapid-fire round to qualify in third spot, with a total of 585. The girl who piped Manu to a third medal at the Paris Olympics, Hungarian Veronika Major, topped with 587.

Esha too shot exceedingly well, a 294 in rapid-fire giving her a total of 579, just enough to ensure two Indians in the final. Simranpreet Kaur Brar, the third Indian in contention, had a tough opening rapid-fire series to miss out with 576.

Manu was also the strongest at the start of the final, a perfect five in the third series, moving her up to the joint lead with the two Chinese, Sun and Feng. Esha came into her own from the third series, a round of four hits moving her up to joint fourth from seventh.

What followed was simply stunning from the Hyderabad girl as she maxed the fifth, sixth and seventh series to surge up to sole second, just one behind Sun.

As heavyweights like Tien Chia-Chen of Chinese Taipei, Doreen Vennekamp of Germany and Manu faltered, it was between Sun and Esha and the former finished stronger to claim a deserving gold. Feng overcame a three-way shoot-off to claim another podium for the Chinese.

Manu also lost out on a shoot-off with Tien, scoring one hit to Tien's two.

India's challenge in the men's and women's skeet competitions were snuffed out at the qualification stage itself. Raiza Dhillon shot 116 to finish 11th in women's skeet, while Ganemat Sekhon (114) and Darshna Rathore (112) finished 14th and 17th, respectively.

In men's skeet, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka secured the best position among Indians when he finished 20th with a score of 116. Bhavtegh Gill was a spot below on the same score, while Gurjoat Khangura finished 22nd with a tally of 115.

Reader Comments

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Priya K.

Wow, Esha Singh is on fire! 🔥 Back-to-back medals at the World Cup is no small feat. The way she surged ahead in those final series was incredible to watch. So proud of our Indian shooters!

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Rahul S.

Great performance overall, but I wish Manu Bhaker could have maintained her strong start. She's got so much potential - hopefully she'll bounce back stronger in Paris!

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Ananya P.

Silver with 35 hits is amazing! The competition was so close. Esha really held her nerve against the Chinese shooters. 🇮🇳 Our shooting contingent is making us proud at every tournament now!

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Vikram J.

The skeet results are disappointing though. We need to focus more on developing talent in shotgun events too. Overall great performance in pistol/rifle, but room for improvement in other disciplines.

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Sanjana M.

That final series between Esha and Sun was edge-of-the-seat stuff! 😍 So close yet so far, but what a performance! Can't wait to see more from our young shooters.

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Karan L.

Three medals already! Gold, silver and bronze - complete set. The shooting team is delivering consistently. Hope this momentum continues through to the Olympics.

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