Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh Miss Individual Medals as India Win 25m Pistol Team Gold
India secured team gold at the ISSF World Championship in Doha, but neither shooter won an individual medal or an LA 2028 Olympic quota.
Manu Bhaker finished fourth and Esha Singh eighth in the women's 25m pistol individual final at the ISSF World Championship 2026 in Doha. India won team gold with an aggregate of 1761, ahead of South Korea and Vietnam.
Key takeaways
- India won women's 25m pistol team gold at ISSF World Championship 2026 in Doha
- Manu Bhaker finished fourth with 27 hits; Esha Singh finished eighth with 11 hits
- Neither shooter secured an LA 2028 Olympic quota place
- India's team aggregate was 1761; South Korea took silver with 1748, Vietnam bronze with 1745
- India has so far secured only one Olympic quota place through Jaypal Malviya
Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh missed individual medals at the ISSF World Championship 2026 in Doha on Tuesday, despite helping India win women’s 25m pistol team gold. Both shooters also missed out on Olympic quota places for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Manu finished fourth with 27 hits, narrowly missing the podium, while Esha ended eighth with 11 hits from a possible 20 across four series of 1, 5, 3 and 2. India’s team gold was its second gold medal at the championship.
Qualification and team result
Esha Singh topped the Indian challenge in qualification with 590 over two days, combining 292 in Monday’s Precision round with a Rapid-round recovery of 298, shot as series of 100, 98 and 100.
Manu Bhaker fired 289 in Precision before bouncing back with 99, 99 and 100 in Rapid for 587. Divya Subbaraju added 584, giving India an aggregate of 1761 to clinch team gold. South Korea won silver with 1748, while Vietnam took bronze with 1745.
Divya narrowly missed qualifying for the individual final, finishing 10th.
Individual final and medal winners
South Korea’s Yang Jiin struck individual gold with a world record score of 44. Vietnam’s Trinh Thu Vinh took silver with 43, while China’s Zhang Yueyue claimed bronze with 34. All three medal winners secured Olympic quota places for their respective countries. Manu survived multiple shoot-offs but fell short of a medal, finishing fourth. Esha, the first to bow out after a patchy performance, finished eighth.
Olympic quota hunt and wider campaign
India has secured just one Olympic quota place so far, through men’s 10m air pistol shooter Jaypal Malviya. Thirty-six LA Olympics quota places are on offer across the competition.
The country’s campaign has been marred by underwhelming performances, particularly in rifle events, while the disqualification of rifle shooter Sambhavi Kshirsagar over an equipment-related failure has added to the concerns.
The repeated inability of Indian shooters to sustain momentum in pressure situations has raised questions about the high-performance programme under high-performance director Pierre Beauchamp and his team of Indian and international experts.
What happens next
The ISSF World Championship 2026 continues in Doha. India’s women’s trap team made a disappointing start, with Asian Games double gold medallist Neeru Dhanda managing scores of 20 and 19 in the first two rounds of 25 shots each to aggregate 39 and languish at 69th among 77 shooters. Pragati Dubey was India’s best-placed trap shooter at 18th.
Women's 25m pistol team results
Team | Aggregate score |
|---|---|
India | 1761 |
South Korea | 1748 |
Vietnam | 1745 |
Related on Apex Sports News
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ISSF World Championship: Niveditha Nair wins bronze as India takes team silver
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