Esha Singh made an emphatic statement about her arrival in the senior circuit with an impressive silver in the women’s 10m air pistol event in the ongoing World Cup shooting championship in Cairo, Egypt.
The 17-year-old is the first woman shooter from Telangana to win a World Cup medal.
“Now the goal is to keep winning as many medals as possible for India in all major events and bring laurels to the country,” a confident Esha told The Hindu from Cairo.
“Honestly, I didn’t have to make any serious adjustments competing in the seniors category”
“Hopefully, this can be just the beginning of many more success stories at the highest level. I will continue to work really hard and keep doing better,” she said.
“I won’t say I was gunning for a medal in this World Cup. But I was confident of putting up a very good show given the kind of preparations I have been having in the run-up to the event,” said Esha, who will be competing in three other events in the World Cup..
“It has been a terrific experience and there was absolutely no pressure competing in my first ever senior World Cup,” she said.
Huge performance
Esha, who shot better than Anna Korakaki of Greece in the semifinals and then pushed Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Antoaneta Kostadinova to the bronze, said it was a huge performance given the fact that so many major events are lined up in 2022.
“Honestly, I didn’t have to make any serious adjustments competing in the seniors category. It is all about staying focussed and I am glad that I finished off with a silver,” said Esha, accompanied by her father-cum-mentor Sachin Singh.
“I am grateful to the Sports Authority of India, NRAI and Gun For Glory Academy for the wonderful support I have been getting from them,” she said.
Sachin said they never had any expectations. “We always gave our best in our training and in competition and let the results follow,” he said.