Esha Singh Secures Silver at ISSF World Cup in Buenos Aires

Esha Singh Shines at ISSF World Cup

New Delhi [India] - April 6: Esha Singh, the reigning world champion in the Air Pistol Mixed Team event, has clinched her second individual silver medal at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup. She scored 35 points in the women's 25m pistol final, finishing behind China's Sun Yujie, who took home the gold with 38 hits after the final five-shot series. Feng Sixuan, also from China, secured the bronze medal. Notably, double Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker, who participated in the final, ended up in sixth place.

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

To reach the final eight, the Indian shooters had to qualify early on Saturday morning. Manu, who was in fourth place overnight, delivered an impressive score of 294 in the second rapid-fire round, securing third place overall with a total of 585. Hungarian shooter Veronika Major, who edged out Manu for a medal at the Paris Olympics, led the qualifiers with a score of 587.

Esha also performed exceptionally well, scoring 294 in rapid-fire, which brought her total to 579, ensuring that two Indian shooters made it to the final. Simranpreet Kaur Brar, the third Indian competitor, faced challenges in her opening rapid-fire series and missed the cut with a score of 576.

Manu started the final strong, achieving a perfect five in the third series, which propelled her into a tie for the lead alongside the two Chinese competitors, Sun and Feng. Esha found her rhythm in the third series, scoring four hits and moving up from seventh to joint fourth.

What followed was remarkable for the young shooter from Hyderabad, as she excelled in the fifth, sixth, and seventh series, climbing to second place, just one point behind Sun.

As other top competitors like Tien Chia-Chen from Chinese Taipei and Germany's Doreen Vennekamp faltered, the contest became a duel between Sun and Esha, with Sun ultimately finishing strong to secure the gold. Feng triumphed in a three-way shoot-off to earn another podium finish for China.

Manu also faced a shoot-off against Tien, scoring one hit compared to Tien's two.

Unfortunately, India's hopes in both the men's and women's skeet events were dashed at the qualification stage. Raiza Dhillon finished 11th in women's skeet with a score of 116, while Ganemat Sekhon and Darshna Rathore placed 14th and 17th, respectively, with scores of 114 and 112.

In the men's skeet, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka achieved the highest ranking among Indian shooters, finishing 20th with a score of 116. Bhavtegh Gill followed closely in 21st place with the same score, while Gurjoat Khangura ended in 22nd with a total of 115.