Esha Singh (born 1 January 2005) is an Indian

sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such ...

. She became the youngest national champion in the 10 meter air pistol in 2018 at the age of 13. Besides 10 meter air pistol, she also competes in

25 meter standard pistol The International Shooting Sport Federation recognizes several shooting events, some of which have Olympic Games, Olympic status. They are divided into four disciplines: rifle, pistol, Clay pigeon shooting, shotgun and Running target shooting, ...

and 25 meter pistol events.

Early life

Esha was born to Sachin Singh and Srilatha on 1 January 2005 in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. Her father was a

rally driver Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (sometimes called "rally racing" in United States), navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed ...

. Before she took up shooting, Singh tried go-karting,

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and skating. A visit to the shooting range at Gachibowli Athletic Stadium in Hyderabad motivated her to choose air pistol. She trained at the stadium and simultaneously at her home, in the paper practice range built by her father. She later joined the Gun for Glory academy by former Olympic medallist Gagan Narang in Pune, Maharashtra.

Career

Domestic

Singh began shooting in 2014 and in 2015, she became the Telangana state champion in 10m air pistol category. She then defeated the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

and Youth Olympics gold-medalist Manu Bhaker and multi-medalist Heena Sidhu in 62nd National Shooting Championships at

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

by winning gold in 10m Air Pistol event becoming the youngest champion in the senior category as a 13-year-old. She also won gold medals in youth and junior categories. At the second edition of Khelo India Youth Games in January 2019, Singh won gold medal in the 10m air pistol event in the under-17 category.

International

She won silver medal at the ISSF Junior World Cup at Suhl,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 2019 and two gold medals at the Asian Junior championships in 10m air pistol women (AP60W) and 10m air pistol mixed team (APMIX). Singh won gold at the Asian Airgun Championships in

Taoyuan, Taiwan Taoyuan () is a special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality located in northwestern Taiwan, neighboring New Taipei City to the north-east, Yilan County, Taiwan, Yilan County to the south-east, and Hsinchu County to the south-west. ...

in March–April, 2019 in the junior category of 10m air pistol event. In November 2019, Singh went on to win individual and mixed team gold medals at Asian Shooting Championship in

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

in 10m air pistol (junior) event. Singh was also selected for India's core training team for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, but failed to finish among the top two to qualify for the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

in the qualification event held in February 2020. At the age of 18, she won four medals at the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially the 19th Asian Games () and also known as Hangzhou 2022 ( zh, c=, s=杭州2022, labels=no), were a continental multi-sport event which was held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The ...

, including the gold medal in the 25m pistol team event for India and an individual silver medal in the 25m pistol event. She became the 25m junior world champion at the 2022 ISSF World Shooting Championships in Cairo. She clinched an Olympic quota berth in the 10m air pistol category for the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

at the Asian Qualifier at Jakarta on 8 January 2024. She will represent India in the 25 meter pistol event at the

in Paris.

Awards and nominations

* In 2023, Esha Singh was conferred with the

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards given for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjun ...

. * In 2020, she received the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, a civilian award for achievers under 18.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Esha 2005 births Living people Indian female sport shooters Sport shooters from Hyderabad, India Sportswomen from Hyderabad, India Shooters at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic shooters for India Shooters at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for India Asian Games shooters for India Asian Games silver medalists for India Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games Recipients of the Arjuna Award Asian Games gold medalists in shooting Asian Games silver medalists in shooting