Phogat claimed her fifth ISSF World Cup title with 21-year-old Esha achieving the rare feat of medals in the 25 m pistol and 10m air including the 25m world record earlier this week. (ISSF Photo)In almost the repeat of the ISSF World Cup Final at Munich last year, where two Indian shooters won gold and silver in the women’s 10m air pistol, Suruchi Singh Phogat and Esha Singh made it a 1-2 finish for India this year too.Phogat claimed her fifth ISSF World Cup title with 21-year-old Esha achieving the rare feat of medals in the 25 m pistol and 10m air including the 25m world record earlier this week. Phogat has set her gun talking in a year which sees Asian Games and LA Olympics quota at the Doha World Championships.“This is my first World Cup title of the year and the starting has been good for me. I did not face any pressure (to compete against Esha for the gold),” Suruchi said. “The start was not good but after that I got the flow and settled down. I just followed my technique and it went well. It is a very important year with Asian Games and Olympic quota matches too. I hope I will be able to win a medal in the Asian Games and then in the Olympics too,” shared Suruchi while speaking with ISSF TV.It’s a 1-2 finish for India in the 10m Air Pistol women final #ISSF #ShootingSport pic.twitter.com/FgyithjWft— ISSF (@issf_official) May 29, 2026https://platform.x.com/widgets.jsThe day saw Phogat and Esha finishing eighth and ninth in qualification with scores of 578 each with Phogat having higher inner tens and another Indian Muskan, who was competing in non-medal category, finishing sixth. It meant that Esha too qualified for the eight-shooter-final. Phogat and Esha edged out Paris Olympics 25m champion Yang Jinn and 10m air pistol champion Oh Ye-jin of Korea as well as world number one Qianxun Yao of China for the last two spots.The eight-shooter final had the likes of Tokyo Olympian and world junior mixed team champion and silver medallist Choo Gaeun, 25m pistol World Junior silver medallist Mirslova Mincheva of Bulgaria, Granada World Cup champion Shen Yiyao of China, 25m pistol Asian Champion Nguyen Thuy Trang of Vietnam, London Olympics silver medallist and three-time Olympian Celine Goberville of France apart from Zhang Qi of China.Goberville grabbed the early lead in the final with her first series of 51.6 followed by Gaeun at the second spot with just 0.1 point behind. Singh shot a first series of 51.5 to be placed third with Qi at fourth place with Phogat at fifth place with 49.4 points.Phogat would shoot a second series of 51.5 points to climb to the fourth spot with Gaeun maintaining her top spot followed by Goberville and Singh at fourth and Mincheva at fifth. Chang dropped to sixth spot followed by Thuy and Yiyao at seventh and eight respectively.Story continues below this adIn the elimination stages, which sees one shooter exiting after a two-shot series, Phogat slowly climbed her way up with Esha dropping to fifth but again coming back to the top four before Mincheva was eliminated at the fourth spot. Gaeun followed by hitting some low nines to exit at the third spot.Phogat, who had a 1.2 lead over Esha, would shoot 10.2 and 10.3 in the last elimination series with Esha shooting 10.1 and 10.7. Phogat won the gold with a lead of 0.9 points.In the elimination series, Phogat shot eight shots of 10.2 or more while Esha had six of those. National high performance manager Raunak Pandit shared how the top 1-2 finish for the Indian shooters augurs well in an important year for Indian shooting. “I am impressed by how both Suruchi and Esha built their match. Esha had a decent start but then faltered a bit but then made a comeback. Suruchi had a moderate start and then shot consistently to pull things back. It was not an easy cake walk for both of them. It’s good to see the competition among the Indian shooters and such things always propels each shooter,” shared Pandit while speaking with The Indian Express.Esha, who had edged out the likes of Paris Olympics champion Jinn during her 25m pistol final earlier this week, achieved a rare double at Munich with her medal in 10m air pistol. It was her third ISSF World Cup medal in 10m air pistol with her winning the title in last year’s Ningbo World Cup.Story continues below this adPandit spoke about the challenge faced by Esha at the Munich World Cup. “The 25m pistol final was a high scoring final and it was a big emotional high for Esha. To forget that and start from scratch in the 10m air pistol event with a clear mind is not that easy. Our main focus was on her recovery and it was yesterday that she trained in 10m after training for 25m earlier for four days. She did struggle in qualification due to that but then she bounced back in the final,” shared Pandit.Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a three-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively. His latest Laadli Award, in November 2025, came for an article on Deepthi Jeevanji, who won India’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Para Championship and was taunted for her unusual features as a child. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More Tags:ISSF World Cup