Home school, private range and the making of a shooting star

By 13, Esha Singh had become the youngest national champion in shooting.

At 15, she was at the Olympics.

Now 21, she holds a world record in the 25m pistol event.

None of this perhaps would’ve happened but for a small visit she made when was 9, accompanying her father when he’d gone to meet friends at the Gachibowli shooting range in Hyderabad.Twelve years later, the effort and the sacrifices speak for themselves, the arcs drawn by routine and regimen coming together in a shooting career that’s taken her places and made her a constant in the national team.

She is seen as an Olympic medal prospect like Manu Bhaker, the 24-year-old Haryana shooter who has been an inspiration and competitor at the same time for Esha.“It’s always been a friendly environment because it’s always both of us,” Esha says of Manu and herself. “We have been in the team for almost eight years.

I think she (Bhaker)’s amazing competition for me.

I think both of us motivate each other to play better.

And every sportsperson should have somebody like that because, otherwise, you don’t have somebody to compete with.

It’s a fun competition that we have.

I’m grateful to have her by my side.”The initial push, though, was all family and Esha notes how her father has been the wind in her sails. “He is the main reason for what I am today,” Esha says of her father. “He retired early from racing to focus on me.

He is my rock.

Whenever I do well or don’t, I fall back on him for guidance,” she added.

The support includes a shooting range at home, put in place in 2015. “It takes a long time to reach the Gachibowli academy.

So, I built a range at my home for her,”said Sachin Singh, a former rally racer who now runs a sports shop in Secunderabad.Her mother, Srilatha — whom Esha calls her “best friend” — talks of the leap of faith the couple took when their daughter turned to shooting, including the decision to homeschool her from class 4. “I was a typical South Indian mother and was worried about her education from the beginning.

We never knew whether she would make it big in the sport; it was a gamble for us.

Though her father was very confident,” Srilatha said.The belief has now produced an impressive CV.

Esha recently won gold in the 25m pistol event at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in the German city of Munich with a world record score of 43.

In 2015, aged 13, she became the youngest national champion, defeating Bhaker and renowned shooter Heena Sidhu in the 10m air pistol category.Esha, who was named in the core team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, won four medals at the 2022 Asian Games, including a gold in the 25m pistol team event and a silver in the 25m pistol event.

In the same year, she bagged four medals, at the Junior World Championships.

She represented India in the 2024 Paris Games and finished 18th in the qualifiers for 25m pistol.Away from the shooting range, Esha’s world moves to a different beat.

But she’s not complaining, making the most of the time she gets to unwind.

Her routine, she says, changes depending on whether she is at the national camp or at home in Hyderabad during breaks from competitions.“When I am in Hyderabad between tournaments or training camps, I usually don’t train.

But if it is a longer stay, I will go to the shooting range at Gachibowli to practice.” Those short windows at home are precious for her. “I like to spend time at home.

I like to talk to my mom a lot and gossip.

I love the food she cooks.”There is also the side of her that wants to experience the city like any other young adult. “I love to go out with my friends to explore new cafes.

Whenever I am in Hyderabad, I like to explore.

I have been playing pickleball recently.

It is less draining, and you don’t feel very exhausted.”What Esha says she has missed, though, is the ordinary rite of passage that most people her age take for granted.

Though she has a BBA degree, Esha has rarely had the chance to experience college life in the usual sense. “I miss not having a college life.

I missed the opportunity to make friends in college.

But I have much more experience touring internationally.

I think I have grown in different aspects of life, which many people do in their 30s or 40s.

I know how to deal with pressure, which people learn to do in a corporate job quite late in life.”