Day eight of the 2025 ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Championship in Cairo, Egypt, marked the end of India’s podium finishes 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 day before, Indian shooters failed to secure any medals in non-Olympic competitions on the eighth day, bringing a quiet end to the nation’s remarkable run in Cairo.
The day’s events highlighted fierce competition and slim margins even in non-Olympic categories, preventing the Indian contingent from adding to their already impressive tally. Although the final results were disappointing for the shooters involved, the main goal of achieving a good finish in the main Olympic events had already been achieved.
With the end of their official Olympic events campaign that yielded a historic gold, four silvers and two bronzes, the team is now celebrating one of its best performances ever at a single world championship.
The main medal event on Day 8 was the men’s 25m standard pistol, where Olympian Gurpreet Singh had the best performance for India, but still finished outside the top echelon. Singh, who represented India at the 2016 Rio Olympics, shot a total of 571-14x to secure ninth place.
This strong, but non-medal, result underlined the high standards of the international peloton. 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 won by Switzerland’s Adrian Schaub.
In the women’s 25m standard pistol event, the results were equally close but ultimately fell short of the podium. Parisha Gupta was the highest-ranked 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 Rifle/Pistol Championship
Despite an eighth day without a medal, India’s overall performance at the 2025 ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Championship was a resounding success. The final tally of 12 medals (three gold, five silver and four bronze) placed India firmly in third position in the overall medal standings, just behind shooting powers China and Republic of Korea.
This successful campaign, highlighted by Samrat Rana’s historic gold medal in the men’s 10m air pistol and Esha Singh’s individual bronze medal in the women’s 25m pistol, demonstrated the growing depth and caliber of Indian shooting. The team will now look to continue this momentum into the next cycle of international competitions.
Edited by Sooryanarayanan Sesha
