In a thrilling final, the 21-year-old Indian shooter held her nerves despite five shoot-offs to win silver in women’s 25m pistol event.

India’s promising pistol shooter Esha Singh displayed a remarkable resilience to excel at the Asian Games in Japan, winning silver in the women’s 25m pistol event on Monday. She overcame multiple shoot-offs before narrowly missing out on gold. 

The 21-year-old Indian pistol shooter finished the final with 38 hits. China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan also scored 38 points. In the shoot-off, the Chinese shooter won the tie-break 3-2 to win gold. Esha settled for silver. Both Esha and Xiao also equalled the Asian Games record set by Liu Rui at Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023.

Esha shot 580 in the qualification to advance to the medal round. Esha was tied with North Korea’s Kim Hyon Suk at 34 hits for the silver medal. The pair remained inseparable through the first two shoot-offs, with both tie-breakers ending 3-3. Esha finally prevailed 3-2 in the third shoot-off to secure her place in the gold-medal contest.

There was one more test of nerve to come. Esha and China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan finished level on 38 hits after the final series, forcing a shoot-off for gold. The first tie-breaker also ended in a 4-4 draw, sending the contest into another shoot-off. Xiao eventually edged Esha 3-2 to take home gold.

In individual qualification, Esha shot 580 to finish eighth and advance to the final. Manu narrowly missed out, finishing 11th with 579. Rahi placed 30th with 568.

Indian team of Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Rahi Sarnobat combined score of 1727 earned them fifth spot. China won team gold with 1743. The South Korea team shot 1735 for silver. Chinese Taipei won bronze with 1734.

EOM