Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Divya Thadigol win 25m pistol team gold at ISSF World Championships

Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Divya Thadigol Subbaraju won India's second gold medal of the ISSF World Championships in Doha, taking the women's 25m pistol team title on Tuesday. The trio combined for a score of 1761-68x, finishing well clear of South Korea, who took silver with 1748-66x, while Vietnam claimed bronze with 1745-54x. Esha led the Indian scoring in qualification and reached the individual final in third place with 590-25x, with Manu joining her in sixth on 587-24x.

Divya narrowly missed the individual final, finishing tenth on 584-19x, but her score counted towards the team total that secured the gold. The title followed India's first gold of the championships in the men's 50m pistol team event, and left India second in the overall medal standings. In the individual final later on Tuesday, Manu finished fourth with 27 hits and Esha eighth with 11, so neither took an individual medal. South Korea's Yang Jiin won the individual gold with a world-record 44, ahead of Vietnam's Trinh Thu Vinh on 43 and China's Zhang Yueyue on 34, and the three medallists took the event's three Los Angeles 2028 quota places.

Esha's qualification score was built on 292 in the precision stage and 298 in rapid, while Manu recovered from 289 in precision with 298 in rapid. Manu had also reached the individual final in the 10m air pistol earlier in the championships, finishing fifth. India's first gold in Doha had come in the men's 50m pistol team event, won by Ravinder Singh, Saurabh Chaudhary and Amanpreet Singh. The women's team gold took India's tally at the championships to nine medals, two gold, five silver and two bronze.