Esha Singh Loses a Marathon Shoot-Off for a Second Straight Asiad Silver

Esha Singh won silver in the women's 25m pistol at the Asian Games on Monday, after a final that came down to a shoot-off lasting five extra rounds and 25 additional shots before China's Xiao Jiaruixuan came out on top.

Both shooters finished the 50-shot final tied on 38, equalling the Asian Games record, which forced the shoot-off for gold. Esha and Xiao traded shot for shot before Xiao finally won it 3-2 in the second extra round, after the first had also finished level at 4-4. North Korea's Kim Hyon Suk took bronze on 34.

It's the second Asian Games running that Esha has finished with silver in this exact event — she was runner-up at Hangzhou in 2023 too, beaten by China's Liu Rui that time. Different opponent, same colour medal.

Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat didn't make the final. Bhaker qualified 11th with 579, Sarnobat 30th with 568; Esha herself only scraped through in 8th on a tiebreak score of 580, the last spot into the final.

Esha, 21, arrived at these Games as the reigning world No. 1 in the event and had won gold at the ISSF World Cup in Munich earlier this year. Her father, Sachin Singh, called the shoot-off marathon "a great effort from a 21-year-old," and Esha herself said she'd fought "till the heart" through it.