Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh miss out on individual medals as India win team gold in 25m pistol
India’s second gold medal at the 2026 ISSF World Championships in Doha came with a sense of individual disappointment on Tuesday as Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh failed to convert their finishes in the women’s pistol final to 25m and a podium finish.
With individual medals and quotas for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, both shooters missed an opportunity to boost India’s campaign. Manu finished fourth with 27 hits to narrowly miss out on a medal, while Esha ended her final in eighth place with 11 hits.
The disappointment in the individual competition was tempered by India’s success in the team competition, where Esha, Manu and Divya Thadigol Subbaraju combined to win gold. The Indian trio recorded a total of 1761-68x to finish comfortably ahead of Republic of Korea (1748-66x) who took the silver. Vietnam won bronze with 1745-54x.
Esha was India’s top performer in the qualifying round, scoring an impressive 590-25x. Manu followed with 587-24x while Divya contributed 584-19x to complete India’s winning list.
The win marked India’s second gold medal of the championships and added to an encouraging campaign for the shooting contingent in Doha. However, the individual results meant that Manu and Esha were left with no chance of adding to their medal collections or securing a place in the Olympic quota through the event.
Earlier in the day, the Indian men’s 50m 3-position team also made it to the podium as they claimed bronze through Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Akhil Sheoran and Niraj Kumar.
The Indian trio finished with a combined score of 1751-91x just behind the Czech Republic, who won gold with 1754-92x, and Norway, who secured silver with 1752-81x.
Aishwary led the Indian effort with 587-33x while Niraj and Akhil both registered 582. Niraj scored 31 inside tens compared to Akhil’s 27.
India will return to action on November 11 with the men’s 50m 3-position final. The team will look to build on their bronze medal performance and add to India’s growing medal tally in Doha.
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