NEW DELHI: Esha Singh, the young Indian shooter, secured a silver medal in the women's individual 25m pistol event at the Asian Games. Despite this, Manu Bhaker, the Youth Olympics champion, was unable to secure a podium finish in the same event.
Esha, who is 18 years old, delivered an impressive performance, scoring 34 to claim the second spot. However, it was China's Rui Liu who clinched the gold medal, setting a games record with a score of 38. Jiin Yang managed to secure the bronze medal after shooting 29.
During her journey to gold, Rui Liu managed to break the previous record held by India's Rahi Sarnobat, who scored 34.
In contrast, Manu, who had an outstanding qualification round with a total score of 590, had to settle for fifth place after scoring 21 in the final round, which included eight women shooters.
In the final showdown for the gold medal, Esha faced some difficulties, missing three of her five shots. In comparison, the Chinese competitor missed the target only once, securing the victory.
With this achievement, India's medal count in shooting reached ten, surpassing the total of nine medals earned in the 2018 edition.
Meanwhile, an unusual and lengthy delay occurred during the final due to a missing shot by a Korean shooter. This led judges to inspect the target and the backup target to confirm whether the shooter had missed the target or if the shot had failed to register.
(With PTI inputs)
