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India struck gold in the women’s 25m pistol team event, but Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh missed out on individual medals and Olympic quota places at the ISSF World Championships.
India’s Manu Bhaker competes in the 10m Air Pistol Women final round during the 20th Asian Games (Picture credit: PTI)
India clinched the women’s 25m pistol team gold, but ace shooters Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh endured disappointing outings in the individual final at the ISSF World Championships on Tuesday.
The duo missed out on another opportunity to win individual medals and bag quota places for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
While Esha finished eighth and last, Manu narrowly missed the podium, ending fourth.
South Korea’s Yang Jiin clinched the gold medal with a world-record score of 44. Vietnam’s Trinh Thu Vinh finished second with 43 to take silver, while China’s Zhang Yueyue secured bronze with 34.
All three medal winners also bagged Olympic quota places for their respective nations.
Both Esha, a multiple Asian Games medallist, and Manu, a two-time Olympic bronze medallist at Paris 2024, made it to the eight-shooter final after strong showings in the qualification round, finishing third and sixth, respectively.
But neither shooter could replicate her qualification-round form in the final, extending India’s disappointing campaign at the competition, which offers 36 quota places for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Esha, who had recently claimed individual silver in the event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, was the first shooter to exit the final after an inconsistent display. She registered just 11 hits out of a possible 20 across four series, with scores of 1, 5, 3 and 2, to finish eighth.
Manu, meanwhile, survived several shoot-offs but fell agonisingly short of a medal, finishing fourth with 27 hits.
India have till now bagged just one Olympic quota place through men’s 10m air pistol shooter Jaypal Malviya.
India’s campaign has been marked by disappointing results, particularly in the rifle events, while Sambhavi Kshirsagar’s disqualification after an equipment-related violation has further compounded the team’s woes.
India’s repeated struggles to maintain momentum in pressure situations have brought its high-performance programme under scrutiny as well, despite substantial investment under high-performance director Pierre Beauchamp and his team of Indian and international experts.
(With PTI Inputs)
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Ask News18Manu Bhaker finished fourth with 27 hits after surviving several shoot-offs, while Esha Singh placed eighth and last after an inconsistent display with 11 hits.
Ask News18November 10, 2026, 19:01 IST
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