ISSF World Cup: Esha Singh’s 10m air pistol gold brings relief | More sports News

Esha Singh was competing against two Paris Olympic champions, one bronze medallist and a fourth finisher with the tag of ‘B’ team shooter. Yet, the Hyderabad girl was able to snatch gold in the women’s 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Ningbo, China, on Saturday. Esha’s win came with a margin of only 0.1 point, showing how intense the final was. Esha scored 242.6 in the final.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!India has sent its ‘B’ team to China for the last World Cup of the season. Esha, who is in the A team in the 25m pistol event, has been struggling with her ranking in the 10m air pistol event. Esha’s medal was India’s first in the competition that came on the fifth day.Esha, 20, was last to qualify for the 8-woman final after shooting 578, with her compatriot Rhythm Sangwan in seventh position on the same score with 22 inner 10s over Esha’s 16.In the final, Rhythm started strong by leading the series of first five shots, while Esha was third. However, with three shots over 10.4 in the next five shots, Esha rose to the top position, while Rhythm dropped to third with three 9s, including a 9.3.China’s Qianxun Yao, Paris Games gold medallist in the same event, Yejin Oh, Paris bronze medallist in 25m pistol, Veronika Major of Hungary, champion in 10m air pistol mixed event at Paris, Zorana Arunovic of Serbia and Paris 10m air pistol fourth finisher, Thu Vinh Trinh of Vietnam, kept Esha on her toes.But Esha didn’t lose her focus and kept the lead throughout the match.The lead was reduced to.04 points after the 22nd shot as Yao hit a 9.9 and 10.7 compared to Esha’s 10.7 and 9.5. But Esha reached 242.6 with a 10 and 9.7 in the 23rd and 24th shots, as the Chinese shot 10.1 and 10 to settle for silver at 242.5.“It was a satisfactory victory for me as this has come in the 10m event. I was trying some things in this format and had dropped in the ranking, so had to shoot in the B team. The field today was good with Zorana, Veronika and Yejin shooting alongside,” Esha told TOI after her win.