Three years ago, Manu Bhaker broke down in tears at the conclusion of a dismal campaign at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics where she finished medalless across three events.
On Sunday at Chateauroux, the 22-year-old, who is competing at her second Olympics, wiped away tears from her eyes once again. This time though they were of joy following the conclusion of the women’s 10m air pistol event where she won a bronze medal, opening India’s medal count at the Paris 2024 Games.
The medal was also the first won by an Indian woman shooter.
After qualifying for the final in third place, Manu hit the ground running. Of the 22 shots she took, just 7 were in the ‘9’ ring.
She was never out of medal contention and was in silver medal place until her final shot of the competition where she was pipped by the narrowest of margins — 0.1 — by South Korea’s Kim Yeji.
Another Korean Ye Jin Oh took gold.
Watch: Manu Bhaker’s coach Jaspal Rana interview
Manu isn’t done just yet. She will also be competing in the women’s 10m pistol mixed team event on Monday and the women’s 25m pistol events later in the competition.
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With her 10m air pistol bronze, Bhaker becomes first Indian woman shooter to win an Olympic medal.
Bronze medalist Manu Bhaker reacts at the end of the 10m air pistol women’s Final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Chateauroux Shooting Centre on July 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
AFP
Having shot two consecutive scores of 9.6 in her eighth and ninth shots of the 10m air pistol finals, Manu Bhaker slipped from inside the medal bracket to fourth place. She found herself behind Asian medallist Thu Vinh Trinh of Vietnam. She needed reassurance.
She knew exactly where to look, to the extreme left hand side of the viewing gallery. There sat a man with dark glasses and a notebook – her coach Jaspal Rana. He closed his fist and brought it to his chest and Manu understood immediately. She didn’t need to look to him, she only needed to look within.
The cloud of nervousness passed. Manu turned back towards the target ten metres ahead of her. She lifted her pistol once again, aimed at the black dot in the centre of the target and fired — 10.3, the digital board above her beamed. It put her back in the medal bracket and she never left it again.
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While Manu steadied herself, the others around her crumbled. Three-time World Cup gold winner Veronica Major was the first to fall. She was followed by Turkey’s junior World champion Tarhan Sevval Ilayda. China’s Asian Games champion Jiang Ranxin dropped out following three shots in the ‘8’ point ring over four series. World Championship bronze medallist Li Xue exited right after. Finally it was Trinh’s turn.
Barring the early blip, Manu cruised along and was even in silver medal position going into the final shot of the competition. She led by 0.1 at that point, but South Korea’s Kim Yeji shot 10.5 to get ahead by the barest of margins.
It was only then that Manu cracked a wry smile — the first real bit of emotion she’d shown in a while — at what could have been. When she had her medal placed around her neck, she even wiped away a few tears. It didn’t matter at this point. She’d already done more than enough to create history — winning India’s first medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Course correction
A few weeks ago, a street dancing troupe held out a hat after their performance in front of two Indians having dinner at a cafe in Luxembourg. They had expected a few coins at most for their efforts. Instead their eyes bulged as a young woman emptied a stack of Euros into their makeshift bowl.
The slightly glum donor was Manu who was training in the European country ahead of the Olympic Games. The 22-year-old’s generosity was an enforced one, part of a training method employed by the Rana, the other Indian at the table. It was designed to make sure she’d never let the intensity of training slip. It’s a way to replicate — as much as possible — the stress Manu felt during a competition, in the otherwise inconsequential environs of a training hall.
As part of the system, Rana would set ambitious targets for his shooter. She would be given a target of say 582 (out of theoretically possible 600 in air pistol). The consequence of any shortfall is made up for with a fine. If she shot a 578, Manu would be paying a fine of €4 or whatever the local currency was. All the collected money was given to charity.
The margin of penalty increased closer to the Olympics. One Euro for every point missed became 10. Then 20.
Sometimes, no amount of training can help with the nerves that come stinging on the tournament eve. A day before her final, when Manu was battling the butterflies in her stomach, she revisited a verse in the Bhagavad Gita where Sri Krishna guides the Pandava prince Arjuna in his own moment of self doubt to focus on his duty. “He tells Arjun, focus on your work, don’t worry about the results tomorrow. So the same was going on in my mind. I was thinking that whatever would happen today, I’d see it today. I have to give my best every shot. I have the whole evening to think about the outcome,” she said.
Tough love
Manu wasn’t always steely eyed and emotionless. Her equation with Rana not always as trusting. In contrast to the tears of joy she blinked away in Chatearoux, the last time she competed at the Olympics, she wept in frustration — as she competed and failed across three different events.
The Olympics — meant to be the highlight of the then 19-year-old’s career — was anything but. There was no doubting her prodigious talent. At 16, she became the youngest Indian to win gold at the ISSF shooting World Cup and was soon winning World Cups and Commonwealth Games gold medals almost for fun. She also became one of the youngest to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
Her impressive results had been achieved while training under Rana, a former two-time Olympian and one of the country’s top pistol shooters in the 1990s and at the turn of the millennium, had helmed a highly successful Indian junior program. He had been Manu’s coach ever since she made her international debut in 2018.
A disagreement over the makeup of the squad (Rana wanted Manu to focus on two events, she wanted to compete in three) was followed by court intrigues, the mother of all meltdowns, and falling outs that involved a heated phone call and Rana walking around New Delhi’s Karni Singh shooting range in a t-shirt which had Manu’s mother’s last caustic message to him written on it.
In the years that followed Manu’s debacle at Tokyo, her own form fluctuated. She failed to make the Indian team for the Asian Games where other shooters from India went on to win gold and silver. She says she became disillusioned with the sport. She started thinking about writing the civil services exam. Before that though, as part of a final effort in the middle of last year, she called up Rana once again. Although he admits he would probably not have reached out if he was in her position, he immediately agreed to work with her.
After Manu sealed bronze, Rana quietly made his way out of the finals range. He refused to take credit for Manu’s achievement “She did this all on her own,” he said. Both had tears in their eyes at the conclusion of the final on Sunday, but they know they aren’t done just yet. After her medal ceremony, Manu headed right back to the practise halls to prepare for her next event — the qualifying round of the mixed team on Monday. She also has the women’s 25m pistol events ahead of her. Rana believes she is capable of medalling in all of them.
