Paris 2024: Manu Bhaker wins bronze; becomes first Indian woman to win shooting medal at Olympics
Manu Bhaker won the bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol event at Paris 2024 on Sunday and created history by becoming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic shooting medal.
Overall, this was India’s fifth Olympic medal in shooting and the first in any sport at Paris 2024. India won shooting medals at three consecutive Olympics from Athens 2004 to London 2012 but drew blank at the next two editions.
The 22-year-old Manu Bhaker scored 221.7 to finish third in the eight-woman final. Oh Ye Jin of the Republic of Korea clinched the gold medal with the new Olympic record of 243.2 and was followed by her compatriot Yeji Kim, who pipped Bhaker to enter the gold medal round and won the silver with the final score of 241.3.
Manu Bhaker started the final strongly, scoring 50.4 in the first series for second place. A couple of 9.6s in the second series saw her slip to the third spot behind Oh Ye Jin and Yeji Kim.
The Indian shooter took back the second position from Yeji Kim at the end of the third series and once again at the closing stages of the final but the South Korean shooter edged past Bhaker by 0.1 point to enter the gold medal round.
“I just put all my effort into staying in the moment until the last second, just not giving up and keep trying harder and harder," Manu said. "You have to hold yourself together, because that’s what all the hard work is for. Although the competition was neck-and-neck and I lost silver by .1, I’m still very grateful to win bronze for my country.”
In the same event at Tokyo 2020, Manu Bhaker was well on course to qualify for the final but a pistol malfunction stole her six precious minutes and she fell just two points short of making the final.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won India’s first Olympic medal in shooting with a silver at Athens 2004 in the men’s double trap. Abhinav Bindra won India’s only gold medal in shooting in the men’s 10m air rifle at Beijing 2008.
Vijay Kumar (men’s 25m rapid fire pistol) and Gagan Narang (men’s 10m air rifle) won silver and bronze, respectively, at the London 2012 Games.
On Saturday, Manu Bhaker stormed into the final of the women’s 10m air pistol event after finishing third in the qualifying round. She thus became the first Indian woman to make an Olympic shooting final in 20 years. Hungary’s Veronika Major, who topped the qualifying round, was the first to get eliminated in the final.
Manu Bhaker will also compete in the 10m air pistol mixed team event on Monday and the women’s 25m pistol event, scheduled to start on Friday. She is the only athlete from the 21-member Indian shooting team to participate in multiple individual events.
Ramita Jindal, Arjun Babuta qualify for 10m air rifle finals
Earlier in the day, Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta qualified for the finals in the women’s 10m air rifle and the men's 10m air rifle events, respectively.
The 20-year-old Ramita, who won bronze at the Asian Games last year, shot 631.5 to finish fifth in the qualifying round. The top eight shooters in the men’s and the women’s events qualified for the finals.
South Korea’s Hyojin Ban topped the qualification round with the Games’ record of 634.5. Elavenial Valarivan, who finished 10th with a score of 630.7, started well but 103.8 in the sixth series saw her miss out on the qualification by a margin of 0.6 points.
In the men's 10m air rifle shooting event, Arjun Babuta scored 630.1 in the qualification series for seventh place. Sandeep Singh finished 12th with 629.3 points and missed out.