Manu Bhaker eyes ‘dream’ Olympic medal

Manu Bhaker would want to make up for the disappointment of not winning an Asian Games medal, as she had finished 6th in the final.

Talented Indian pistol shooter Manu Bhaker will be one of India’s top medal contenders at the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo. All of 19, Bhaker has already won multiple gold medals at ISSF World Cups and also has a Commonwealth Games gold to show for her efforts.

Top Indian medal contender at the Tokyo Games, ace pistol shooter Manu Bhaker on Friday said she has been “working really hard” for the past five years to win Olympic gold.

Manu Bhaker, 19, recently decided to switch off from social media till the end of the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her preparation and performance in the Games, starting 23 July.

“To win the Olympic gold medal, I have been really working really hard for the past five years now, and it has always been my dream,” Bhaker said in a video posted by the Sports Ministry.

Champion rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra remains India’s lone individual gold medallist at the Olympics.

Winner of innumerable medals at top international events, Manu Bhaker thanked the government for the help it offered her for preparing in the best possible manner.

“The government has been very helpful throughout my shooting years. Whenever we needed any types of equipment or ammunition for training purposes or pistols or anything, everything is being settled by the government,” the ISSF World Cup medallist said.

Manu Bhaker is currently training in Croatia along with other members of the Olympic-bound Indian team.
The shooters will directly fly to Tokyo before the Games.

In the recently-concluded ISSF, World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, Bhaker had teamed up with Saurabh Chaudhary to win the 10m air pistol mixed team gold.

She, however, ended seventh in the 25m pistol event won by another Olympic-bound shooter Rahi Sarnobat.

Manu Bhaker had won a silver in 10m air pistol individual event in the New Delhi World Cup in March and 10m air pistol mixed team gold, along with Chaudhary.

A gold medallist in the prestigious ISSF World Cup Finals, Youth Olympics and Commonwealth Games, the pistol shooter will enter Tokyo as one of India’s biggest medal hopes, having won almost everything one can after a sensational start to her career.

Bhaker has been selected for three events in the Olympics, scheduled to be held from 23 July to 8 August.

The Croatia tour was arranged after the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) realised that it was not possible to hold camps in India amid a deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.