India wrapped up the 2025 ISSF World Cup Final in Doha with a strong second-place finish on the overall medal table, underlining its growing stature as one of world shooting’s most consistent powers.
Competing against an elite, limited field drawn from the season’s best performers, the Indian contingent claimed six medals two gold, three silver, and one bronze finishing behind only China in the final standings .
The World Cup Final represents the toughest competitive environment on the ISSF calendar. Held from December 6 to 8, the event featured only the 12 Olympic shooting disciplines and just ten shooters per category, selected through a demanding qualification pathway that rewards season-long excellence. India’s ability to qualify 15 athletes across rifle, pistol, and shotgun disciplines reflected considerable depth within the national programme, particularly in pistol events .
The campaign’s defining theme was India’s dominance in women’s pistol, led by a new generation of shooters delivering world-class scores under pressure. Teenager Suruchi Singh produced one of the standout performances of the competition by winning gold in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol with a score of 245.1, establishing a new junior world record. The result capped off a 2025 season in which she had already claimed multiple World Cup gold medals, reinforcing her transition from junior success to senior consistency.
Fellow Indian Sainyam finished second in the same event, giving India a decisive one-two finish in the season-ending final.
India’s second gold medal came in the Women’s 25m Pistol, where 21-year-old Simranpreet Kaur Brar produced a composed display to top the final with 41 hits out of 50. Her score matched the junior world record previously set by Olympic champion Yang Ji-in of Korea, highlighting India’s growing capacity to produce medal-winning shooters at junior and senior levels simultaneously.
While more established names like Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh did not reach the podium in this event, the immediate success of younger athletes underlined the depth of India’s pistol pipeline rather than a reliance on a single star.
Beyond the gold medals, India showed strong consistency across multiple finals. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar claimed silver in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, finishing just 0.9 points behind Czech shooter Jiri Privratsky, who won gold with a world record score. Tomar’s performance was a reminder that India’s rifle programme remains competitive at the highest level, with marginal differences separating podium positions in elite finals .
In the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Anish Bhanwala upgraded his previous World Cup Final bronze to silver, scoring 31 hits to finish behind Chinese Olympic champion Li Yuehong. Samrat Rana added a bronze medal in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol but fell short of gold after a crucial low shot in the later stages of the final, illustrating how narrow the margins are in elimination-style shooting formats.
However, amid the positives, the World Cup Final also exposed a persistent weakness in India’s shotgun programme. Veteran trap shooter Zoravar Singh Sandhu, the sole Indian representative in shotgun events, finished seventh in the Men’s Trap final after managing just 7 hits out of 10. Given his bronze medal earlier in the year at the World Championships, the result highlighted the lack of depth and consistency in this discipline rather than individual potential alone.
Read Articles Without Ads On Your IndiaSportsHub App. Download Now And Stay Updated
Near-misses in rifle events further pointed to an emerging performance challenge for India converting final appearances into gold medals. Shooters like Rudrankksh Patil and Arjun Babuta reached elimination stages but fell short of podium finishes, signaling the need for sharper execution in pressure scenarios rather than technical overhauls .
Overall, India’s second-place finish at the 2025 ISSF World Cup Final confirmed its status as a global shooting heavyweight, particularly in pistol events where junior shooters are now delivering senior-level results. The next phase for the national programme lies in addressing two clear priorities: building genuine depth in shotgun disciplines and improving gold-medal conversion in high-pressure finals.
As the international circuit moves towards the next Olympic cycle, India has both the talent base and competitive exposure the challenge now is refinement rather than reinvention.
