Asian Games: How Rahi Sarnobat’s rare, inexplicable mistake cost India 25m pistol team medal

India’s Rahi Sarnobat competes during the rapid phase of the women’s 25m pistol qualification. (PTI photo) NEW DELHI: India suffered a costly and extraordinary absence from veteran shooter Rahi Sarnobat after a rare error in the women’s 25m team event dashed their medal hopes at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Monday. Sarnobat’s shot produced nil in the fourth set, a setback that proved decisive as India finished fifth, out of the medal positions.The Indian trio of Esha Singh, Manu Bhaker and Sarnobat combined to score 1727-56x in the team event. China won gold with 1743-68x, while South Korea (1735-65x) and Chinese Taipei (1734-48x) took silver and bronze.Sarnobat, a former Asian Games gold medallist, found the incident particularly difficult to explain. The shooter herself admitted that she had never experienced anything similar in her career.“This is the first time something like this has happened in my career and I don’t know how it happened,” Sarnobat said.Her unexpected zero in a contest where every shot counts left India with little room to recover and turned what could have been a medal performance into a disappointing fifth place.Asian Games full coverage | Medal Tally | Schedule

How one miss changed India’s medal prospects

The women’s 25m pistol competition featured both team and individual events, with India fielding three experienced shooters in Esha, Manu and Sarnobat. While Esha kept India’s hopes alive in the individual event, the team’s medal ambitions took a big hit during the qualifying rounds.Sarnobat endured a difficult fourth series, posting a score of just 39. The series consisted of five runs, and her performance included a rare error that led to zero runs. The failure was particularly damaging in a tightly contested competition where the difference between the medal winning teams was relatively small.Sarnobat ended up finishing 30th in the individual qualification with a score of 568-16x. Her teammates also had contrasting luck in the individual competition. Esha qualified for the finals in eighth place with 580-22x, while Manu narrowly missed out, finishing 11th with 579-18x.Team India’s final score of 1727-56x left them 7 points behind bronze medalists Chinese Taipei and just 8 points behind silver medalists South Korea. The gap to the gold-winning Chinese team was 16 points, underscoring the impact of the team’s missed opportunities.Sarnobat, who won the women’s 25m pistol gold at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, was among India’s most experienced competitors in the discipline. Her admission that she could not explain the unusual error added to the disappointment of a campaign that India entered with medal aspirations.

Esha Singh saves individual silver

While India missed out on a team medal, Esha produced a determined performance in the individual competition to clinch the silver after an exceptionally long final.The 21-year-old Hyderabad native, the reigning world No. 1, went through five shootouts, including three to advance to the medal fight and two more in the gold fight against China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan.Both scorers finished regulation with scores of 38, forcing another shootout to decide the winner. Esha hesitated on the last shoot, allowing Xiao to take the gold by a single shot. North Korea’s Kim Hyon Suk claimed bronze after losing her shootout against Esha to finish with 34 points.“Yes, I was under pressure and this is the longest match of my career so far. My hands were hurting at the end of it,” Esha said after the final.Meanwhile, the Asian Games ended without an individual medal for Manu. The two-time Olympic medalist had already finished fifth in the women’s 10m air pistol and failed to qualify for the 25m pistol final.