Manu Bhaker misses gold, Esha Singh wins bronze in Asian Championship

Manu Bhaker missed gold in a tense shoot-off against Vietnam’s Thuy Trang Nguyen, while Esha Singh won bronze in the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship. Naamya Kapoor clinched junior gold and Anjali Bhagwat bronze as India’s medal tally reached 60

Hyderabad: Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker narrowly missed out on gold as she went down to Vietnam’s Thuy Trang Nguyen in an exciting final of the 25m Women’s Pistol, decided after two shoot-offs, in the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi on Monday.

Esha Singh won her second individual medal of the championship, claiming bronze.

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Naamya Kapoor clinched gold in the junior category in another tense shoot-off, while Anjali Bhagwat secured bronze in the same event as India took its total medal tally to 60, including 37 gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze.

In the finals, Esha Singh started with a perfect five in the first series while Manu and Thuy Trang hit four. All three shooters traded medal positions after each series in the tightly contested final. The Indians put pressure on the Vietnamese shooter, but a perfect five in the sixth series gave her a two-point lead. Manu and Esha closed the gap after Nguyen’s one-shot seventh series.

Esha, who was leading with a score of 30 at the end of the eighth series, missed all her shots in the ninth to settle for bronze. In the last series, Manu hit three shots while Nguyen hit two, ending the final on 35 shots each and forcing a shoot-off.

In the first shoot-off, both shooters hit two shots each. In the second, Manu missed three shots to miss out on gold. Rhythm Sangwan finished fourth.

In the junior finals, Naamya Kapoor survived a shoot-off to clinch gold. The youngest Indian to win a World Championship medal, she hit 29 shots, the same as Rihadatul Asyifa of Indonesia. Kapoor held her nerve in the shoot-off, hitting three shots while Asyifa missed all. Anjali Bhagwat won bronze with 24. Parisha Gupta, who qualified in top spot, finished fifth with 14.

The Indian teams also secured gold in both senior and junior categories.