Published: November 10, 2026 at 8:36 pm
Indian women shooters won a gold but Manu Bhaker narrowly missed out on securing a Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games quota for India in the women’s 25m pistol shooting event after finishing fourth at the ISSF World Championship 2026 in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.
Yang Jiin of the Republic of Korea took the gold medal with a new world record score of 44 ahead of Vietnam’s Trinh Thu Vinh, who shot 43 for silver. Zhang Yueyue of the People’s Republic of China claimed bronze with 34.
Jaypal Malviya shoots silver at ISSF World Championship to seal India’s first LA28 quota
Two-time Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, with 27, was eliminated just before the top three was finalised while compatriot Esha Singh, the first shooter out, finished eighth in the final with 11.
Both Indian shooters made a slow start in the final. While Manu hit just two of the five shots in her opening series of five, Esha managed just one. Manu, though, mounted a wonderful recovery and survived multiple shootouts to make the top four.
Tied with Zhang at 24 after seven rounds of shooting, Manu hit three out of five in the eighth series while the Chinese shooter landed a perfect score to seal a podium spot. Manu had also made the individual final in 10m air pistol but finished fifth.
Both Indians had earlier qualified for the eight-woman final through qualification, where Esha Singh placed third with 590-25x and Bhaker sixth on 587-24x. Divya TS missed the final after finishing 10th with 584-19x.
India women win team gold
The trio, however, combined to tally 1761-68x to win the women’s 25m pistol team gold medal, finishing ahead of the Republic of Korea (1748-66x) and Vietnam (1745-54x). Esha Singh led the gold-winning trio with 590-25x, with Bhaker adding 587-24x and Divya Thadigol Subbaraju 584-19x.
The team gold took India’s medal tally at the Doha championships to nine – two gold, five silver and two bronze.
Men win bronze
India’s only LA 2028 shooting quota from the championships so far came through Jaypal Malviya, who secured silver in the individual men’s 10m air pistol event.
The top three from all 12 individual Olympic shooting events at the ISSF World Championship 2026 secure LA 2028 quotas for their respective countries, subject to the maximum allocation of two places per NOC in each event.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the LA Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at LA 2028.
