ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol Day 8: India Goes Medalless

Day 8 of the ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol 2025 in Cairo, Egypt, marked the end of India's podium appearances at the tournament, as the focus shifted to the non-Olympic discipline of 25m Standard Pistol events. Despite a highly successful campaign that concluded its engagement in all 10 Olympic disciplines the previous day, the Indian shooters were unable to secure any medals in the non-Olympic competitions on the eighth day, bringing a quiet close to the nation's remarkable run in Cairo.

The day's events highlighted the fierce competition and small margins even in the non-Olympic categories, preventing the Indian contingent from adding to their already impressive overall tally. While the final results were disappointing for the shooters involved, the primary objective of securing a strong finish in the core Olympic events had already been met.

With their official Olympic event campaign wrapped up which yielded a historic one gold, four silver, and two bronze medals, the team now celebrates one of its best-ever performances at a single World Championship.

The main medal event of Day 8 was the Men's 25m Standard Pistol, where Olympian Gurpreet Singh delivered the best performance for India, but still finished outside the top echelon. Singh, who represented India at the Rio 2016 Olympics, shot a total of 571-14x to secure ninth place.

This strong, but non-medal winning, finish underscored the high standards of the international field. The other Indian shooters in the men's event, Udhayveer Sidhu and Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu, finished 23rd and 24th, respectively, with scores of 561 and 559. The gold medal was claimed by Adrian Schaub of Switzerland.

In the Women's 25m Standard Pistol event, the results were similarly close but ultimately fell short of the podium. Parisha Gupta was the highest-placed Indian, finishing in 10th position with a score of 556-11x. Her teammates, Shikha Chaudhary and Agam Grewal, finished 12th and 19th respectively.

The team's efforts in the Standard Pistol events were also competitive but missed out on medals; the Indian women's team finished fourth with a combined score of 1658, while the men's team placed fifth with 1691. China, South Korea, and Hungary dominated the team podiums.

Final Medal Tally Confirms Historic Campaign for India at ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol

Despite the medalless Day 8, India's overall performance at the ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol 2025 stands as a resounding success. The final tally of 12 medals (three gold, five silver, and four bronze) firmly placed India in third position on the overall medal table, only behind shooting powerhouses China and the Republic of Korea.

This successful campaign, highlighted by Samrat Rana’s historic gold in Men's 10m Air Pistol and Esha Singh’s breakthrough individual bronze in Women's 25m Pistol, demonstrated the depth and rising calibre of Indian shooting. The team will now look to carry this momentum into the next cycle of international competitions.

Edited by Sooryanarayanan Sesha