Pistol prodigy Esha Singh, adjudged the BYJU’s ‘Young Athlete of the Year (Female)‘ at the Sportstar Aces Awards 2022 on March 19, was presented with a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh and a Casio G-Shock watch.
Sportstar will track the progress of the BYJU’s Young Athletes – Esha and Nihal Sarin, throughout the year. We will bring you their updated rankings, highlights from the past month, expert views on their latest performances and more.
August has been an eventful month for Esha. In the senior women’s 25m pistol (T5) at the National Selection Trials in New Delhi, Esha narrowly missed out on a medal, scoring 14 and finishing fourth below Naamya Kapoor (22) in the final round. Incidentally, Esha (578-19x) had a higher score in the qualification round than the home favourite Naamya (575-18x).
Although she made the semifinal on all three occasions, she gave the junior knockouts in T5 and both the junior and senior elimination rounds in T6 in the same discipline a miss.
With a lowly 565-12x, she failed to make the semifinals in all categories of the 10m pistol event in T5. In the senior round, she finished 35th and in the junior and youth categories, she managed ranks of 17th and 12th, respectively. The 17-year-old from Telangana, however, roared back to form in T6, entering the semifinal in the 10m pistol senior, junior and youth category. However, on this occasion as well, she decided not to compete.
When asked the reason behind such a move, Esha’s father-cum-mentor Sachin Singh said, “This was mostly to balance her workload. We want her to be at her best ahead of the upcoming big events like the World Championships.
“She also had a bout of fever ahead of the first trials in 10m pistol. So, we decided not to put too much stress on her.”
Esha will soon be seen in action at the 36th National Games in Gujarat between September 27-October 10. She has also made the 48-member Indian squad for the ISSF World Championships scheduled to start in Cairo on October 12.
