NEW DELHI: India were left ruing a costly and extraordinary lapse by experienced shooter Rahi Sarnobat after a rare miss in the women’s 25m pistol team event derailed their medal hopes at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya on Monday. Sarnobat’s shot yielded zero points in the fourth series, a setback that proved decisive as India finished fifth, outside the medal positions.The Indian trio of Esha Singh, Manu Bhaker and Sarnobat combined for a score of 1727-56x in the team competition. China won gold with 1743-68x, while South Korea (1735-65x) and Chinese Taipei (1734-48x) took silver and bronze, respectively.For Sarnobat, a former Asian Games gold medallist, the incident was particularly difficult to explain. The shooter herself admitted that she had never experienced anything similar in her career.“This is the first time that something like this has happened in my career and I do not know how it happened,” Sarnobat said.Her unexpected zero in a competition where every shot counts left India with little room to recover and turned what could have been a medal-winning performance into a disappointing fifth-place finish.Asian Games Full Coverage | Medal Tally | Schedule
How one miss changed India’s medal prospects
The women’s 25m pistol event featured both team and individual competitions, with India fielding three experienced shooters in Esha, Manu and Sarnobat. While Esha kept India’s hopes alive in the individual event, the team’s medal ambitions took a major hit during the qualification rounds.Sarnobat endured a difficult fourth series, registering a score of just 39. The series consisted of five shots, and her performance included the rare miss that resulted in zero points. The setback was particularly damaging in a tightly contested competition, where the margin separating the medal-winning teams was relatively small.Sarnobat eventually finished 30th in the individual qualification standings with a score of 568-16x. Her teammates also had contrasting fortunes in the individual event. Esha qualified for the final in eighth place with 580-22x, while Manu narrowly missed out, finishing 11th with 579-18x.India’s final team score of 1727-56x left them 7 points behind bronze medallists Chinese Taipei and just 8 points behind silver medallists South Korea. The gap to the gold-winning Chinese team was 16 points, underlining the impact of the team’s missed opportunities.Sarnobat, who won gold in the women’s 25m pistol at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, was among India’s most experienced competitors in the discipline. Her admission that she could not explain the unusual mistake added to the disappointment of a campaign in which India had entered the event with medal aspirations.
Esha Singh salvages an individual silver
While India missed out on a team medal, Esha produced a determined performance in the individual event to secure silver after an exceptionally long final.The 21-year-old from Hyderabad, the reigning world number one, fought through five shoot-offs, including three to move into medal contention and two more in the gold-medal contest against China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan.Both shooters finished regulation with scores of 38, forcing another shoot-off to decide the winner. Esha faltered on the final shot, allowing Xiao to take gold by a single shot. North Korea’s Kim Hyon Suk claimed bronze after losing her shoot-off against Esha, finishing with 34 points.“Yes, I was under pressure and this is the longest match of my career so far. My arms were aching at the end of it,” Esha said after the final.For Manu, meanwhile, the Asian Games ended without an individual medal. The two-time Olympic medallist had already finished fifth in the women’s 10m air pistol event and was unable to qualify for the 25m pistol final.
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