New Delhi: Olympian Gurpreet Singh’s ninth-place finish was the best the Indian shooters could manage as they could not secure any medals in the 25m Standard Pistol event in the ISSF World Championships 2025 at the Olympic Shooting Range in Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday.
China’s Yao Qianxun continued her impressive run in the World Championships, picking up her third individual gold medal to go along with the 10m Air Pistol mixed team gold and a silver in the 25m Sports Pistol event. Adrian Schaub of Switzerland became the world champion in the men’s category.
India remained in third position behind China and South Korea in the medal tally with three gold, five silver, and four bronze medals, while China has 12 gold, seven silver, and two bronze medals, and Korea has racked up seven gold and three each of silver and bronze medals.
In the men’s event, Gurpeet Singh shot a total of 571-14x for his ninth-place finish. The other shooters in the competition, Udhayveer Sidhu and Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu, finished in 23rd and 24th place with scores of 561-9x and 559- 6x, respectively. Yeongjae Cho of South Korea won the silver, while Ukraine’s Pavlo Korostylov won the bronze medal.
In the women’s category, Parisha Gupta finished in 10th, the highest among the Indian shooters, with a score of 556-11x. Shikha Chaudhary shot 555-11x for a 12th-place finish while Agam Grewal shot 547-9x to finish in 19th place.
Earlier, former Asian, Mixed Team, and Junior World champion, Esha Singh, added another feather in her decorated cap, nailing a maiden individual World Championship medal, claiming bronze in the women’s 25m Pistol Olympic event. The Indian shot a score of 30 in the final, to finish behind in-form Chinese Yao Qianxun (silver, score: 38) and Korea’s reigning Olympic Champion Yang Jiin (gold, score: 40).
Esha’s effort came as India wrapped up engagements in the 10 Olympic events on schedule at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship Rifle/Pistol, Cairo 2025, with a historic haul of one gold, four silver, and two bronze medals. Overall, India lies third on the table with three gold, five silver, and four bronze medals, behind leaders China with 10 gold medals and Korea, which are second with six gold medals.
(IANS)
