Shooter Esha Singh skipped four finals to find her shot. Then she won Asian Championships Gold | Sport-others News
5 min readFeb 4, 2026 09:58 PM IST
At the start of the year, Esha Singh left everyone puzzled. Across four events at the shooting nationals and domestic trials, the 21-year-old would breeze through qualifications, earn her spot in the final, and then simply not show up.
For a shooter with medals from every international competition imaginable—save for the one that matters most, an Olympic podium finish—the deliberate absences seemed bizarre. What was India’s pistol prodigy doing?
On Wednesday at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, the answer became clear.
With just four days of mental preparation—visualizing her finals routine, rehearsing the pressure moments in her mind—Singh walked into the Asian Shooting Championships and delivered. The 10m air pistol gold came easily, a commanding 4.8-point margin over silver medalist Ching-yen Chen, with a score of 239.8. Not world-beating, perhaps, but convincing enough to add another continental medal to her growing collection.
“She’s a seasoned athlete,” explains coach Ronak Pandit, defending the unusual strategy. “She doesn’t need training for finals right now.”
The pressure cooker
It’s a bold gamble, especially considering the furnace of domestic competition Singh faces. There’s double Paris Olympics medalist Manu Bhaker. Former world record holder Rhythm Sangwan. The surging Suruchi Phogat, who has claimed three World Cup victories already in 2025. Of all India’s stacked shooting squads, the women’s 10m air pistol might be the most brutally competitive.
All three made Wednesday’s final in Delhi. Only one reached the podium.
Since Paris, Singh has been India’s most consistent performer with a pistol in hand. Gold at the Ningbo World Cup. Silver at Buenos Aires. Silver at the Asian Championships in Shymkent. And the crowning achievement—her first-ever senior World Championship medal.
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That World Championship breakthrough brought more than hardware. It revealed something crucial about how Singh’s body responds when everything is on the line.
“I guess when you go to that kind of level, you learn how your body responds under pressure,” Singh reflected after Wednesday’s medal ceremony.
No quick fixes
The real work has been unglamorous and internal. Pandit has focused Singh on stability through conditioned workouts, addressing the core issues that have shadowed her career.
“Generally, all athletes look for external secrets or quick-fix solutions—a different grip, a new gun, trying some other shoe, hoping that will cause a miracle and solve all their problems,” Pandit says. “But the only way of improving is to develop your own skills.”
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He uses a simple metaphor: changing your pen won’t improve your handwriting. You have to work on the writing itself.
For Singh, that’s meant placing herself in situations designed to keep her stable even when pressure mounts. It’s a work in progress. Pandit points to Wednesday’s slow start—Singh’s muscles still don’t always respond well to the stress of a match’s opening minutes.
But despite being mid-learning curve, Singh keeps winning.
The marathon season
The timing matters. With the Asian Games and World Championships approaching—both offering pathways to the Los Angeles Olympics—peaking at the right moment becomes essential. For Singh, that means continuous hours dedicated to recovery between the relentless competition schedule.
Though this year the Indian squad has been split into two groups, the calendar remains punishing. “To be honest, every year is the same,” Singh admits. “We’re always on the run. Every two weeks, my suitcase comes out. I have to pack. I got used to it, I guess.”
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It’s the reality of elite shooting in India—a constant state of motion, chasing medals across continents while trying to find moments of stillness at the firing line.
Rana’s rising star
On the men’s side, 21-year-old Samrat Rana continued his remarkable run. The World Championship gold medalist added an Asian Championships bronze to his collection from 2025, which already includes a World Cup final medal.
Coached by his father and competing solo at shooting ranges worldwide, Rana started slowly alongside India’s other 10m pistol shooter, Sharvan Kumar. After 18 shots, both Indians were positioned for medals. But on his 20th shot, Kumar’s nerves betrayed him—an 8.7 that dropped him to fourth place.
Rana stayed composed, hitting the 10-ring on five of his final six shots to secure his first Asian Championships bronze.
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For India’s young guns, the message is clear: consistency under pressure isn’t about showing up to every final. Sometimes it’s about showing up when it counts—mind sharp, body stable, ready to feast on gold.
