Paris Olympics: How Manu Bhaker exorcised her demons of Tokyo 2020

Abhinav Bindra, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Vijay Kumar and Gagan Narang – the list of Indian Olympic medallists in shooting had been a male bastion so far. Manu Bhaker, the highly rated 22-year-old from Haryana, finally broke the jinx for women with a bronze in 10-metre air pistol to open the account for India in Paris and fuel early hopes of crossing the double figures in medals.    

As the country raised a toast and the Indian media at the remote shooting venue of Chateauroux – nearly 200 kms away from Paris - scramble to capture the essence of the historic moment, Manu will be mighty pleased at the way she managed to exorcise the demons of Tokyo 2020.

The medal hopes started flickering on Saturday itself when Manu, who had reunited with her coach Jaspal Rana, logged 580 points in the qualifying round to be a first Indian woman pistol shooter to enter an Olympic final and third overall after Anjali Bhagwat (Sydney 2000) and Suma Shirur (Athens 2004) in the 10m air rifle category.

It’s not for nothing that Manu, a winner of several gold medals at ISSF World Cups and 2018 Commonwealth Games, had been held as one of the prodigious shooting talents of the country.

However, a nightmarish outing in Tokyo, partly due to circumstances beyond her control – made her a subject of vicious trolls. A pistol malfunction in 10m air pistol resulted in her finishing 12th while Manu was below par to end as 15th in the 25m air pistol.

What’s more, her much publicised fallout with Rana, a distinguished Olympian and her mentor for years, created a perception of her being too temperamental at a tender age.

The haunting memories of Tokyo, where India pinned a lot of hopes on a big shooting contingent like this time, prompted Manu to often contemplate to quit shooting till last year. In an interview before the Games, she admitted that shooting seemed boring for her and it became ‘’like a 9 to 5 job’’ for her.

She wanted to quit the sport and pursue higher education abroad. Manu was part of the Indian national team and winning medals at the highest level alright, but her desire to be the best in the world seemed to be running out.

This is when Manu picked up the phone and called her former coach Rana and the later agreed to work solely as her ‘personal coach’. She was in good form in the lead-up to the Games and the highs and lows over the years shaped her to become the hungry shooter that she was in the range on Sunday.

In a discipline with such a premium on the mental aspect, Manu showed nerves of steel to exorcise her own demons and was consistent throughout – never slipping out of the top three in a eight-woman final. She totalled 221.7, while Korea’s Oh Ye Jin took gold with a total of 243.2, an Olympic record, as it was a 1-2 for them with Kim Yeji claiming the silver with 241.3.

Manu started on a strong note, shooting 50.4 in the first series of five shots. She shot in excess of 10 three times in the first series. In the second set of five shots, Manu took her tally to 100.3 and managed to stay in the top three throughout the final.