Inda’s Esha Singh won a silver medal in the women’s 25m pistol event at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou on Wednesday, September 27.
Manu Bhaker, who topped the qualification and was a medal favourite, disappointed as the Tokyo Olympian finished 5th in the final.Esha Singh’s silver comes hours after the India women’s team of her, Manu Bhaker, and Rhythm Sangwan won the Gold medal in the women’s 25m pistol team event on Wednesday at the shooting range in Hangzhou.
India topped the qualification stage and Rhythm Sangwan did not make the final despite finishing in the top 8 in qualification as only two athletes per country were allowed in the 8-woman final.18-year-old Esha Singh finished with 34 points in the women’s 25m pistol final, finishing 4 behind China’s Liu Rui, who set a new Games record with 38 points in the final. Yang Jiin of Korea won bronze with 29 points.
Manu Bhaker finished 5th in the final with 21 points as she was the 4th shooter to be eliminated in the final.Esha started slow with 2 and 3 in the first two series but she shot 3 perfet series to make take the silver.Meanwhile, there was an unusual long delay in the final because of a missing shot of the Korean shooter, leaving the judges to inspect the target and the back-up Target to see if the shooter actually missed the target or failed to register.Esha Singh’s silver in women’s 25m pistol is the 11th Shooting medal overall at the Asian Games 2023 as India already went past Jakarta Games’s tally of 9. And it was the 6th shooting medal on Wednesday for India.Esha Singh was born on 1 January 2005 in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
She is an Indian amateur shooter.She became the national champion in the 10m Air Pistol category in 2018. She won a silver medal at Junior World Cup at Suhl, Germany in 2019, two gold medals at Asian Junior Championships in Individual and Mixed Team event. Her father was a rally driver. Before she took up shooting, Singh tried go-karting, badminton, tennis and skating.
A visit to the shooting range at Gachibowli Athletic Stadium in Hyderabad motivated her to choose an air pistol. She trained at the stadium and simultaneously at her home, in the paper practice range built by her father. She later joined the Gun for Glory academy by former Olympic medallist Gagan Narang in Pune, Maharashtra.Esha began shooting in 2014, and in 2015 became Telangana state champion in the 10m air pistol category.
Esha defeated Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympics Gold-medalist Manu Bhaker and multi-medalist Heena Sidhu in 62nd National Shooting Championships at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala by winning gold in 10m Air Pistol event and thus became the youngest champion in the senior category as a 13-year-old. She also won gold medals in youth and junior categories.with inputs from India Today
