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Phogat claimed her fifth ISSF World Cup title with 21-year-old Esha achieving the rare feat of medals in the 25 m pistol and 10m air including the 25m world record earlier this week. Phogat has set her gun talking in a year which sees Asian Games and LA Olympics quota at the Doha World Championships.

It’s a 1-2 finish for India in the 10m Air Pistol women final 🇮🇳🔝#ISSF #ShootingSport pic.twitter.com/FgyithjWft

The day saw Phogat and Esha finishing eighth and ninth in qualification with scores of 578 each with Phogat having higher inner tens and another Indian Muskan, who was competing in non-medal category, finishing sixth. It meant that Esha too qualified for the eight-shooter-final. Phogat and Esha edged out Paris Olympics 25m champion Yang Jinn and 10m air pistol champion Oh Ye-jin of Korea as well as world number one Qianxun Yao of China for the last two spots.

The eight-shooter final had the likes of Tokyo Olympian and world junior mixed team champion and silver medallist Choo Gaeun, 25m pistol World Junior silver medallist Mirslova Mincheva of Bulgaria, Granada World Cup champion Shen Yiyao of China, 25m pistol Asian Champion Nguyen Thuy Trang of Vietnam, London Olympics silver medallist and three-time Olympian Celine Goberville of France apart from Zhang Qi of China.

Goberville grabbed the early lead in the final with her first series of 51.6 followed by Gaeun at the second spot with just 0.1 point behind. Singh shot a first series of 51.5 to be placed third with Qi at fourth place with Phogat at fifth place with 49.4 points.

Phogat would shoot a second series of 51.5 points to climb to the fourth spot with Gaeun maintaining her top spot followed by Goberville and Singh at fourth and Mincheva at fifth. Chang dropped to sixth spot followed by Thuy and Yiyao at seventh and eight respectively.

In the elimination stages, which sees one shooter exiting after a two-shot series, Phogat slowly climbed her way up with Esha dropping to fifth but again coming back to the top four before Mincheva was eliminated at the fourth spot. Gaeun followed by hitting some low nines to exit at the third spot.

Phogat, who had a 1.2 lead over Esha, would shoot 10.2 and 10.3 in the last elimination series with Esha shooting 10.1 and 10.7. Phogat won the gold with a lead of 0.9 points.

Esha, who had edged out the likes of Paris Olympics champion Jinn during her 25m pistol final earlier this week, achieved a rare double at Munich with her medal in 10m air pistol. It was her third ISSF World Cup medal in 10m air pistol with her winning the title in last year’s Ningbo World Cup.

Pandit spoke about the challenge faced by Esha at the Munich World Cup. “The 25m pistol final was a high scoring final and it was a big emotional high for Esha. To forget that and start from scratch in the 10m air pistol event with a clear mind is not that easy. Our main focus was on her recovery and it was yesterday that she trained in 10m after training for 25m earlier for four days. She did struggle in qualification due to that but then she bounced back in the final,” shared Pandit.