Esha, Shiva help India win 10m air pistol mixed gold
Narwal, 17, and Esha, 18, first topped the 65-pair qualification round with an aggregate score of 583 before beating the Turkey pair in the gold medal match.
Teen shooters Shiva Narwal and Esha Singh gave India their first gold medal of the 2023 ISSF World Championships by winning the 10m air pistol mixed team event in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday.
Narwal, 17, and Esha, 18, displayed fine form through the day. They first topped the 65-pair qualification round with an aggregate score of 583 before beating Turkey's Yusuf Dikec and Sevval Tarhan 16-10 in the gold medal match.
It gave the Indian contingent a second medal to go with the air pistol team bronze in what has otherwise been a rather quiet start to its campaign in the key event offering quota places for the 2024 Paris Olympics. India are currently second in the overall medal standings behind China, who have so far won five gold and two bronze medals.
Both Narwal and Esha displayed some fine shooting in the qualification round comprising 30 shots each with the former registering a score of 293 and the latter 290. Their aggregate of 583 ensured they pushed the Turkish pair (aggregate score of 581) to second spot and enter the gold medal contest with belief.
There, the Indians raced to a 4-0 lead but the Turkish duo fought back to first level things up and then take a 6-4 edge. That's when the teens stood up with two 10s in Series 6 and 7 that helped them regain the advantage. Both Esha (Series 9 and 13) and Narwal (Series 7 and 10) shot a couple of high 10.6s to wrest control of the final.
Happy with the performance and the medal, Narwal said the duo's practice sessions during the Indian contingent's recent training camp in Chateauroux, France — venue for shooting events at Paris Olympics — made a difference.
"After finishing our first qualification relay, we were not sure whether we would fight for gold but once we knew that we were in the gold match, we were confident of winning," Narwal said.
However, there were some below-par performances elsewhere from Indian shooters. The 10m air rifle mixed team pairing of Mehuli Ghosh and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar finished ninth in the 77-team qualification round with a combined score of 630.2. Divyansh Singh Panwar and Ramita ended 17th with 628.3 in the same event.
In women's skeet, the team of Parinaaz Dhaliwal, Ganemat Sekhon and Darsha Rathore missed out on bronze. They finished fourth with an aggregate of 351, behind bronze medallists Slovakia (359).