Esha Singh clinched a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup in the women's 10m air pistol at Ningbo on Saturday, September 13. Esha, the 20-year-old Indian, edged past the home favourite Yao Qianxun by 0.1 point in a tense final. Rhythm Sangwan, another Indian, finished fifth.
Esha defeated the home favourite by just one point in the eight-shooter final with a score of 242.6. Rhythm led the field after the first series, while Esha was ranked second. The difference swelled at the halfway point with Esha in the lead and Rhythm in fifth.
Esha maintained her rhythm as the eliminations began, while Rhythm was also escaping early eliminations, until she bowed out. Esha scored 10.7s at crucial stages to stave off Yao's late surge.
With her win, Esha has completed a quad for India. With her gold medal, India has now won the yellow metal at all four ISSF World Cups this year. Before Esha, Suruchi Singh had won the gold medals in the first three matches in Buenos Aires, Lima and Munich.
Speaking on her win, Esha said, "I am very happy as this is the first event that I started with and to win a World Cup gold in it… I am just happy that some of my goals are being reached," Singh said.
Speaking on the next challenges ahead, she said, "Yes, obviously, the world championship is the next big one for the year. We are training very hard for it and I am sure you will see very good things from the Indian team in Cairo."
On her mindset in the final, she said: "Yes I am aware of things like India has not won a medal yet and that there are great shooters in the field, but I have played many finals against these guys and its them all the time so I now know that the pistol is in my hand and the battle is with me so I try to enjoy the match as much as possible.
