Esha Singh helps India to 2 golds in Asian Championship
Olympian Esha Singh carried her excellent form from last year into the new season, clinching the women’s individual 10m air pistol gold and helping the home team to another top-podium finish, even as world champion Samrat Rana settled for bronze on the opening day of the Asian Championship (pistol/rifle) on Wednesday.
Esha, 21, came from behind to score 239.8 in the final, fending off challenges from two Chinese Taipei shooters — Cheng Yen-Ching (235.4, silver) and Yu Ai-Wen (217.7, bronze) — as well as compatriot Suruchi Singh, to claim her second individual senior Asian Championship gold.
The shooter, who had earlier secured the season-ending ISSF World Cup gold in Ningbo, China last year, had won her first continental title in Jakarta in 2024 at the age of 19. Suruchi, 19, who led the final after the first 10-shot stage, slipped dramatically in the elimination round to finish fourth, while Manu Bhaker, a double bronze medallist at the Paris Olympics and the third Indian to reach the eight-shooter final, ended up in seventh place.
In a competition that didn’t rise to great levels, with all the shooters’ scores swaying between the highs of upper 10s and the lows of 8s, it was Esha who kept her cool with three scores of 10.4 and above to take a big leap for gold, while the two Chinese Taipei shooters fell back sharply, with some of their scores in the 9s and 8s.
