Indian shooter Suruchi Singh won the gold medal in the women's 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup 2025 in Munich, Germany, on Friday, extending her golden touch on the international shooting circuit.
With this victory, the 19-year-old shooting prodigy added one more feather to her cap, having won earlier gold medal victories in the Buenos Aires and Lima rounds of the ISSF World Cup this year.
Suruchi showed nerves of steel in a nail-biting finish, registering 241.9 to pip France's Camille Jedrzejewski, who was second with 241.7. China's Qianxun Yao took the bronze medal with a score of 221.7.
Though behind halfway in the final—at second place with 162.3 points, 0.4 behind Yao—Suruchi took advantage of a lapse in form by her opponent. Three disappointing shots by Yao left her out of medal contention, and the fight was shifted between Suruchi and Jedrzejewski.
The French shooter momentarily pulled ahead, but a composed 10.5 shot in the closing stages sealed the win for Suruchi. Jedrzejewski’s penultimate effort of 9.5 proved crucial in deciding the final outcome.
Earlier in the qualification round, Suruchi finished second with a strong score of 588, comfortably securing a place in the final.
Conversely, two-time Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker finished 25th with 574, narrowly missing a finals spot. Sainyam, who was participating for Ranking Points Only (RPO), finished fifth in qualifiers with 580 but did not qualify for the finals.
Reigning Asian Games champion Palak Gulia scored 570 to finish 36th, while Simranpreet Kaur Brar scored 568 and stood at the 51st position.
Suruchi’s gold was India’s third medal at the Munich World Cup. Earlier, Sift Kaur Samra and Elavenil Valarivan brought home bronze medals in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions and 10m air rifle events, respectively.
While that was happening, Indian shooters in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event could not make it to the final. India's best of the lot in the competition was Anish Bhanwala who had 581 points but ended up at 18th position. His colleagues, Adarsh Singh, Vijayveer Sidhu, Ankur Goel, and Gurmeet, all missed making it into the top eight.
The Munich leg is the third stop of this year's ISSF World Cup for rifle and pistol athletes. Indian shooters have begun the year 2025 on an impressive note, having already won eight medals—four of them golds—in Buenos Aires, then seven in Lima.
The current World Cup has attracted almost 700 athletes from 78 nations, reflecting the quality of global opposition in Munich.
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