Esha Singh Takes 25m Pistol Silver After Shoot-Offs

Esha Singh won silver in the women’s 25m pistol at the Asian Games on September 28, matching the Games record with 38 hits. China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan took gold in a last shoot-off, 3 to 2, after both had finished on 38. Singh, the world No. 1, had only just reached the final in eighth.

Hours earlier at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery in Toyota, Rahi Sarnobat hit the frame of the target in rapid fire. India finished fifth in the team event on 1727-56x.

Esha Singh Forces Gold Into Extra Shots

The eight-woman final started from zero. Qualification scores did not carry over. Singh opened with five hits from five shots and followed with four, then watched Xiao string two perfect series and go past her.

She slipped as far as fourth. Shang Kaiyan of China went out in fifth. When Vietnam’s Trinh Thu Vinh left the line, a medal was safe, and Singh answered with a clean 5/5. North Korea’s Kim Hyon Suk was still there. The two were tied on 34 hits, which meant a bronze shoot-off, then another, then a stoppage the range could not afford.

Santadeep Dey, reporting from the gallery, logged a technical snag with Kim’s first shot late and unregistered, and a range officer calling a series off with Singh leading and one shot still to fire. Kim took bronze. Singh stayed on for gold. Xiao held a one-hit lead. Singh posted four to force extra shots. Both posted four. Xiao then hit three. Singh hit two.

THE 25M PISTOL FINAL, MINUTE BY MINUTE

1. 10:48 IST: Singh leads after the first five-shot series with five hits.
2. 10:54 IST: Xiao’s back-to-back perfect series puts her in front.
3. 10:55 IST: Bong Seorin of South Korea exits eighth on 11 hits.
4. 10:58 IST: Singh, Xiao and Kim sit on 20 hits; qualification leader Haniyeh Rostamiyan of Iran goes out.
5. 11:03 IST: Trinh’s exit locks a medal; Singh cards 5/5.
6. 11:07 IST: Singh and Kim, tied on 34, go to a bronze shoot-off.
7. 11:13 IST: Singh’s three hits send Kim to bronze; gold is still open.
8. 11:21 IST: After three gold shoot-off rounds, Xiao hits three and Singh two. Both finish on 38, matching Liu Rui’s Games record from Hangzhou.

The climb from fourth, the bronze extras, and the gold extras made the silver look heavier than the metal. It was also her second straight Asian Games silver over this distance, after Hangzhou.

An Eighth-Place Start, a Clean Slate

That was not obvious at 9:22 IST. Singh had closed qualifying on 580-22x, tied with Cheng Yen-Ching of Chinese Taipei on 580. Cheng had 20 inner tens. Singh had 22, and that was the entire margin for the last final slot. Forty-four women started. Eight went through.

She had sat sixth after precision on 290-9x. Two opening rapid series of 49 kept her alive. A 96 through the middle of rapid dropped her under Kim. She finished the stage with a 47 and a 49. The ISSF World Cup Final ranking, dated 28 July 2026, still had her No. 1 with 4000 points. Xiao was No. 2 on 3738. The first round in Toyota did not care.

WOMEN’S 25M PISTOL QUALIFICATION

Rahi Sarnobat, 35, finished 30th on 568-16x. The final’s hit line is 10.2 or higher; 10.1 and below is a miss. Each five-shot series uses the rapid sequence, one shot in each 3-second presentation, across 10 series, with the lowest shooter cut after series four and one more after each series that follows.

Why India Finished Fifth in the Team Event

The team score is the three individual totals added together. India put Singh with Manu Bhaker, a two-time Olympic medallist, and Sarnobat, who won this title at Jakarta 2018. They had team gold at the Hangzhou Games. On this morning they were 16 points behind China before anyone talked about a frame.

Sarnobat shot 39 in her first rapid series. Jonathan Selvaraj, on site, said the last shot of that series hit the frame of the target. A 10 on that shot would have moved India from 1727 to 1737, second behind China’s 1743-68x and ahead of South Korea’s 1735-65x. The later gallery update put it that way: without the miss, India could have gone up to second. Fifth is where the card stopped.

WOMEN’S 25M PISTOL TEAM

India sat five points behind Vietnam’s bronze and two ahead of North Korea. The only pistol gold India had in Aichi-Nagoya before Singh’s silver was the mixed 10m air pistol, won by Kamaljeet and Suruchi Singh with 484.6. The women’s 10m air pistol team of Bhaker, Singh and Suruchi had already gone fourth on 1719-44x, losing a bronze countback to Vietnam’s 1719-46x.

Manu Bhaker’s 25m Campaign Ends in Qualification

Bhaker, 24, closed on 579-18x. Oh Yejin of South Korea also shot 579, with 24 inner tens to Bhaker’s 18, and took 10th. Eight women above Bhaker had already finished both precision and rapid, so the individual final was gone before the last relay was old news.

She had come in as the Paris 2024 double medallist and as a member of the Hangzhou team that won this event. In 10m air pistol here she had reached the final, then finished fifth on 181.1 after qualifying third on 579-20x. The 25m was the second pass. It ended in the first round.

The ISSF ranking still had her fourth in the world on 2152 points. Toyota’s 25m line, over two days, did not return a final start. Singh was the only Indian among the eight.

South Korea Drops Team Gold on a Miscue Too

India was not the only favourite that left a shot on the floor. Yang Ji-in, the 2024 Olympic champion over this distance, had led after Sunday’s precision. In rapid she fell to 16th, then 17th, on 575. Bong Seorin’s 581 hauled South Korea back to silver on 1735. China still won by eight. Yang spoke after the team result.

I am really sorry to my teammates who have worked so hard together to get ready for this competition.

Yang Ji-in, 2024 Olympic 25m pistol champion, after the team final

Bong later went out of the individual final first, on 11 hits. Yang never reached it. The Olympic champion and the 2018 Asian Games champion had the same kind of morning, a few lanes and a few hours apart, and both teams paid for it in the add-up.

The World Record That Stayed in Munich

Singh is 21, from Hyderabad, born 1 January 2005. On 27 May 2026 in Munich she won the ISSF World Cup final with a world record score of 43 hits, also a junior world record, past Kim Yeji’s 42 from Baku in 2024. Doreen Vennekamp of Germany took silver on 38. Miroslava Mincheva of Bulgaria took bronze on 31. Yang Ji-in was fifth. After that final Singh said the work is simple until pressure breaks it.

Our sport is very simple, as is the technique. The only thing that goes wrong is when things crumble under pressure. The job is to try and not do that and focus on just one or two points.

Esha Singh, after the Munich World Cup final

On 27 July in Hangzhou she won her second World Cup gold of the year with 40 hits, three clear of Zhang Yueyue. Bhaker took bronze on 28 after a shoot-off. Singh had talked then about executing a plan under pressure after the Munich wins. Aichi asked for that plan on a day when she barely made the start list.

ESHA SINGH, 25M PISTOL FINALS IN 2026

• Munich, 27 May: Gold with 43 hits, senior and junior world records.
• Hangzhou, 27 July: Gold with 40 hits; Zhang Yueyue 37, Bhaker 28.
• Toyota, 28 September: Silver with 38 hits, Games record equalled, gold lost 2-3 in the last shoot-off.

In 10m air pistol at these Games she had already gone 15th on 572-12x and missed the final. The 25m silver is the correction, and it is not the 43 from May. Xiao, ranked immediately behind her, shot the cleaner last extra series.

Jakarta, 2018, and a Morning in Toyota

Sarnobat’s last Asian Games gold in this event was a shoot-off too. On 22 August 2018 in Jakarta she tied Naphaswan Yangpaiboon of Thailand on 34, then 4-4, then 3-2. She became the first Indian woman to win an individual shooting gold at the Asian Games. Bhaker, then 16, had set a Games qualification record of 593 and finished sixth in that final.

Eight years later Sarnobat was the third name on a team that still looked, on paper, like a medal. The frame-hit in the first rapid series is a different kind of extra shot from the ones Singh won and lost after lunch. One erased a path to second in the add-up. The others took a woman who had qualified eighth to 38 hits and a Games record share, with Xiao holding the gold.

At the shotgun range, Neeru Dhanda stayed top of women’s trap on 95 after day two. The pistol hall had already decided its medals. Singh’s 38 is in the book beside Liu Rui’s. The last three hits of the day were Xiao’s.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Won the Women’s 25m Pistol at the 2026 Asian Games?

Xiao Jiaruixuan of China won gold and Esha Singh of India won silver, both on 38 hits, with Xiao taking the last shoot-off 3-2. Kim Hyon Suk of North Korea won bronze after a 34-hit tie with Singh. Xiao had qualified second on 586-26x; Kim had qualified fourth on 584-21x.

What Score Did Esha Singh Shoot in the 25m Pistol Final?

She finished on 38 hits, matching Liu Rui’s Games record from Hangzhou, after opening 5/5 and later using a four-hit series to force the gold shoot-off. The final is scored hit-or-miss out of a maximum of 50 shots (10 series of five), so 38 is 12 misses across the medal round and extras.

Why Did India Miss a 25m Pistol Team Medal?

India totalled 1727-56x, five points behind Vietnam’s 1732-56x for fourth and seven behind Chinese Taipei’s bronze on 1734-48x. Rahi Sarnobat’s last shot of her first rapid series hit the frame; a 10 there would have made 1737, which would have been silver behind China’s 1743.

How Does Women’s 25m Pistol Final Scoring Work?

A shot of 10.2 or higher is a hit; 10.1 or lower is a miss. In qualification rapid, electronic targets keep a green light on for 3.1 seconds and still accept a valid shot for 0.2 seconds after it goes off, with the paper face shown for three seconds and away for seven. The final does not use qualification totals.

What Is the Women’s 25m Pistol World Record?

Esha Singh’s 43 hits at the ISSF World Cup in Munich on 27 May 2026 is the senior and junior world record, one hit above Kim Yeji’s 42 from Baku in 2024. The Asian Games final in Toyota was a separate 38-hit Games record share, not a world record.