Paris 2024: Manu Bhaker-Sarabjot Singh script history with bronze medal in 10m air pistol mixed team shooting

Indian shooters Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh scripted history with a bronze medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team shooting event at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Tuesday.

This was India’s sixth Olympic medal in shooting and first-ever in a shooting team event. The result also made Manu Bhaker the first athlete of independent India to win two medals in one edition of the Olympics. On Sunday, Manu Bhaker became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in shooting.

Competing at the National Shooting Center in Chateauroux, Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh defeated the Republic of Korea’s Oh Ye Jin and Wonho Lee 16-10 in the bronze medal match. Oh Ye Jin won the gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event on Sunday.

Manu Bhaker started strongly, shooting a 10.2 on her opening shot. Sarabjot Singh’s 8.6 cost India the first two points but he recovered quickly with scores of 10.5, 10.4 and 10 to help India take the next six points.

Manu Bhaker struck at least a 10 on her first seven shots. However, Oh Ye Jin kept the South Koreans in the hunt with her consistency as they recovered from an 8-2 deficit to stretch the match to 14-10.

Oh Ye Jin, the Olympic champion, struck a 9 on her final shot while her partner managed a 9.5. Manu Bhaker hit a 9.4 but a 10.2 from Sarabjot Singh confirmed the medal for India.

"It’s great. The first medal was really good and again the fight was really tough," Manu said. "It was neck to neck with each shot, like with my first bronze. But the last shot was Sarabjot’s, so big up to him."

The Indian shooters had 19 of their 26 shots hit at least a 10 while the South Koreans had 12 shots hit a minimum of 10.

On Monday, Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh finished third in the qualifying round to make the bronze medal match, behind Turkiye’s Sevval Ilayda Tarhan-Yusuf Dikec and Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic-Damir Mikec. Serbia won the gold medal with a 16-14 win over Turkiye.

The top two teams from the field of 17 qualified for the gold medal match while the third and fourth-placed teams played for bronze.

Two of India’s six Olympic medals in shooting have now come at Paris 2024. The only other time Indian shooters won two medals in shooting at a single edition of the Olympics was in London 2012. Vijay Kumar (men’s 25m rapid fire pistol) and Gagan Narang (men’s 10m air rifle) won silver and bronze, respectively.

India blanked in shooting events at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

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.

Manu Bhaker will also compete in 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.

Prithviraj Tondaiman finishes 21st in men’s trap

India's Prithviraj Tondaiman finished 21st in the men’s trap qualification round and could not progress to the six-man final from a field of 30 shooters. Tondaiman ended with an overall score of 118/125 across five rounds over two days.

In the women’s trap event, which began on Tuesday, Indian shooters Rajeshwari Kumari and Shreyasi Singh both scored 68, placing them in 21st and 22nd positions, respectively, after Day 1.