Udhayveer Sidhu opened India’s medal account at the ISSF World Cup 2026 Cairo with a gold in the men’s 10m air pistol event at the Egyptian International Olympic City Shooting Range on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Udhayveer Sidhu shot 240.6 in the men’s 10m air pistol final, finishing ahead of Olympic medallists Christian Reitz of Germany (240.1), who took silver, and Italy’s Paolo Monna (219.8), who claimed bronze.
Turkiye’s Yusuf Dikec, an Olympic medal winner and a viral sensation from Paris 2024, had also qualified for the eight-man final but was the second shooter to be eliminated.
Udhayveer Sidhu had earlier made the cut for the final by finishing fourth in the qualifiers with a score of 585-19x.
This was Udhayveer’s first major international success in the 10m pistol event with most of his past accomplishments coming on the 25m pistol junior circuit.
The Indian shooter’s only previous individual success on the senior circuit was winning the silver medal in 25m standard pistol at the Asian Championships in 2019.
Jonathan Gavin Antony, who was competing for Ranking Points Only (RPO), was the best-performing Indian shooter in qualification, finishing second with a score of 586-25x.
Ajendra Singh Chauhan finished 14th in qualification with 580-23x, while Olympic medallist Sarabjot Singh placed 31st with 574-15x. Yogesh Kumar, who was also competing for RPO, shot 573-24x to finish 33rd.
Swapnil Kusale, who became the first Indian to win an Olympic medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions with bronze at Paris 2024, is also scheduled to compete in Cairo next week.
The Cairo shooting meet is the fourth and final ISSF World Cup of the year for rifle and pistol shooters, with medal events being held from October 10 to 15.
India have fielded a completely different rifle and pistol contingent from the one that competed at the recently concluded Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya.
The change in personnel is in line with the National Rifle Association of India’s (NRAI) selection plan for the season. While the Asian Games squad was earmarked as Team A after selection trials, the Cairo World Cup is designated as Team B.
