Asian Shooting C'ships: Esha Singh strikes gold in 10m Air Pistol

Esha Singh led India’s charge in the women’s 10m Air Pistol, winning gold on the opening day of the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range on Wednesday.

Esha won the final with a score of 239.8 points as Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Yen-Ching (235.4) and Yu Ai-Wen (217.7) settled for silver and bronze, respectively.

“I am happy that I could get my country’s flag up high. Playing on your homeground has its own kind of pressure, but it also gives you a familiar feeling because you know how the range is,” Esha told The Bridge on Wednesday.

“In the Delhi final hall range, the lighting is a bit difficult to shoot in. It’s very challenging. Today, I almost couldn't see the target much, but I just followed my process. I trusted where my hand was stopping, and that’s how I was shooting,” she added.

This is Esha’s only second career Asian Championship gold. She had earlier won Asian gold in Jakarta two years back.

In the final, Esha had a rough start and slowly climbed the leaderboard. Meanwhile, Suruchi Singh finished fourth with 197.7 points and Manu Bhaker was placed seventh with (135.3 points). The trio went on to win team gold with their combined effort of 1726 points.

“I don’t look at anyone as my country or another country. I look at everybody as a competitor. I had a rough start. But overall, I think I built my way up. But once I caught on to my process, I didn’t leave it till the last shot. It was quite tight,” she highlighted.

“I think when you just keep the focus on yourself and not look at beating anyone, that’s when you can actually play your game. Because even though you do have competitors, at the end of the day you just have to keep your mind on yourself and not what is happening around you,” she added.

Meanwhile, reigning world champion Samrat Rana won bronze in the men’s 10m air pistol with a score of 220.3. Uzbekistan’s Vladimir Svechnikov won the gold and Kazakhstan’s Valeriy Rakhimzan settled for silver.

Samrat, Sharvan Kumar and Varun Tomar won silver in the men’s air pistol team event.

In the 10m air pistol junior men’s event, Jonathan Gavin Antony struck double gold, winning the final with a score of 240.9 and claiming team gold alongside Chirag Sharma and Priyanshu Yadav.

In 10m air pistol men youth final, Dhairya Parashar won gold and Mandeep Chauhan won silver. The Indian duo alongside Girish Gupta also won the team gold.

India won a total of nine medals including 6 gold and 2 silver.