Manu becomes the first Indian female shooter to win a medal in Olympics
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, July 28, 2024: Indian female shooter Manu Bhaker today finished 3rd in the women’s 10m air pistol event and clinched the BRONZE medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics. This is also the first medal for India at the Paris Olympics. Manu finished the final round with a score of 221.7.
Manu becomes the first Indian female shooter to win a medal in Olympics, a day after she became the first female shooter to reach an Olympic final in an individual event in the last 20 years. This is India’s first medal in shooting since London Olympic Games 2012. Manu is also India’s first-ever Olympic medallist in the 10m Air Pistol event.
Manu Bhaker is the fifth Indian shooter to clinch a medal in the Olympic Games after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004 Athens), Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing), Vijay Kumar (2012 London) and Gagan Narang (2012 London).
Key Government Intervention
Government Intervention and initiatives to help Indian athletes are proving to be fruitful.
Manu Bhaker received Key Government Intervention (Paris cycle).
Assistance for ammunition: This includes assistance towards weapon servicing, pellet and ammunition testing and barrel selection. Assistance towards training with personal coach Mr. Jaspal Rana at Luxembourg for the preparation towards OG 2024
Financial Assistance (Paris cycle)
Under Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS): Rs. 28,78,634.
Under Annual Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC): Rs. 1,35,36,155.
TOPS From 2014
In order to improve India’s performance at Olympics and Paralympics, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) started the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) in September 2014. This was revamped in April 2018 to establish a technical support team for managing the TOPS athletes and providing holistic support. The scheme is fully functional and has been extending all requisite support to probable athletes identified for the 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games including foreign training, international competition, equipment and coaching camp besides monthly stipend of Rs. 50,000/- for each athlete.
TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) is a flagship program of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports which is an attempt to provide assistance to India’s top athletes. The Scheme looks to add a premium to the preparations of these athletes so that they can win medals in the Olympics.
Paris 2024 performance: QUALIFICATION ROUND, FINAL ROUND
Manu Bhaker finished 3rd with a score of 580 in the qualification rounds, also shooting the highest number of Perfect Scores (27).
She became the 1st Indian female shooter to reach an Olympic Final in an individual event in the last 20 years! The last time was Suma Shirur, who reached the Final of the 10m Air Rifle event in Athens 2004. She also became the first Indian woman to qualify for the 10M AIR PISTOL WOMEN'S final round at any Olympics.
Manu Bhaker could have been in the gold medal encounter but she registered just 0.1 point lesser than the silver medalist in the 6th shoot-off at Stage 2. That made her settle for the 3rd place finish. Korea’s Kim Yeji eventually won the silver while Oh Ye Jin won the gold with an Olympic record.
Achievements
Asian Games (2022)- Gold Medal in 25m Pistol Team World Championship, Baku (2023)- Gold Medal in 25m Pistol Team Asian Shooting Championship, Changwon (2023)- bagged Paris Games 2024 Quota with 5th finish in 25m Pistol. World Cup, Bhopal (2023)- Bronze Medal in 25m Pistol World Championship, Cairo (2022) - Silver Medal in 25m Pistol World University Games, Chengdu (2021) - 2 Gold Medals in 10m Air pistol individual and womens team event.
Background
Manu Bhaker is an Indian Olympian who competes in shooting. Born in Jhajjar, Haryana, a state known for its boxers and wrestlers, Manu Bhaker took to sports like tennis, skating and boxing in school. She also participated in a form of martial arts called ‘thang ta’, winning medals at the national level. She then impulsively decided to try her hand at shooting when she was just 14 – just after the 2016 Rio Olympics ended – and loved it.
At the 2017 National Shooting Championships, Manu Bhaker stunned Olympian and former world No. 1 Heena Sidhu where she won 9 gold medals. Manu shot a record score of 242.3 to erase Sidhu’s mark to win the 10m Air Pistol final. 2018 was Bhaker’s breakthrough year as a shooter as she became a teenage sensation bagging a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games just at the age of 16. In the 2018 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup held at Guadalajara, Mexico. Bhaker won the gold medal in the Women's 10-metre air pistol, defeating Mexico's Alejandra Zavala, a two-time champion. Manu Bhaker also sealed an Olympics quota place with a fourth-place finish at the 2019 Munich ISSF World Cup. However, her debut at the Games did not go as planned. Shortly after Tokyo 2020, Manu Bhaker became the junior world champion in the women's 10m air pistol at Lima and did win the women's 25m pistol silver at the 2022 Cairo World Championships and a gold in the same event at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Date of birth: FEBRUARY 18, 2002
Training base: DR. KARNI SINGH SHOOTING RANGE, NEW DELHI
Birthplace: JHAJJAR, HARYANA
