India's road to Olympics looks promising with Manu Bhaker on board

Manu Bhaker looked really promising as she shot 548 in qualification and 244.3 in the finals where she claimed the gold.

Hitting the bullseye is difficult unless you practice it real hard, with utmost concentration but Manu Bhaker, who is only 17 years old, took her shot and bagged a gold medal in women’s 10m air pistol event at the ongoing Asian Shooting Championships here in Doha, making her country proud. The shooter looked promising as she shot 548 in qualification and 244.3 in the finals where she claimed the gold.

It was a stress-free victory for Manu Bhaker since she had already secured an Olympic quota during the Shooting World Cup that was held in May in Munich and had nothing to worry about despite the tournament being the last chance for shooters to earn quotas for the Tokyo Olympics. Also to applaud is the fact that she rose in fervor and displayed unwavering spirit to earn the prestigious quota, barely two days after the pistol malfunction setback during the 25m air pistol tournament at the Shooting World Cup.

According to the policy, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) picks the team on the basis of individual scores of athletes during selection trials and competitions and subsequent cumulative scores of each team. Bhaker’s victory has added a feather to India’s steadily rising graph of Shooting at the Olympics Games. From 2004 to 2012, Indian shooters have won medals at three consecutive Olympic tournaments, not to forget, Abhinav Bindra, who laid the foundation stone of Olympic victories with his big gold win at Olympics in Beijing in 2008. Today, with Manu's confidence, the shooting canvas looks even more positive. 

However, despite her victory, it has been observed that Bhaker is not quite strong on the individual front during the tournaments and it is evident from her pairing with teenage shooter Saurabh Chaudhary during the Shooting World Cup. When this duo pairs up at the shooting range, one can see a thorough display of concentration, accuracy, and confidence. This combination has helped the country in securing many goals in the mixed shooting championships, the Olympic quota being the recent one.

History of gold

Talking about Manu’s achievements so far, the girl has seen nothing but gold. She started her international shooting journey in 2017 and won a silver at the Asian Junior Championships. After that, there was no stopping for the player. She has won an individual gold medal at ISSF World Cup in 2018 and won five more golds in the mixed air pistol team in 2018 and 2019. She has also clinched gold and bronze at Asian Shooting Championship in 2019 in individual and mixed teams respectively.

Bhaker also became the first-ever Indian to clinch gold at the Youth Olympics. The prodigy also successfully bagged gold in the 10m women's air pistol at the Common Wealth Games in 2018 and she also became the youngest woman to win a gold medal at the ISSF Junior World Cup. 

Currently ranked 12 in world rankings, Manu has achieved tremendous success at such a young age and is passionate to achieve more for her country. She has said that the Olympics quota that she has earned is not on her name, it is for the country. She just wants to focus on managing her ranking. India definitely needs such mature players as they are future of the sports industry.

But she needs to work tremendously hard for the Tokyo Olympics. She has played in Youth Olympics and Common Wealth Games, but this is going to be a tournament where she will be facing all the senior players. Thus, the preparations for such kind of tournament will be different because considering her future in the sport, she will be playing at the senior level soon.

The atmosphere at the Youth Olympics is very playful and at the Tokyo Olympics, it will be completely opposite. There will be a lot of pressure and to cope up with that situation will be tricky. But then here comes the role of the coach. Jaspal, Bhaker's coach surely has a lot of mantras to keep the players out of pressure and let them focus only on their performances. For junior shooters, there are tremendous distractions and for Manu, the road ahead is not easy which is why she will need to work hard to achieve more and make a mark.

The road ahead

In a country like India where cricket is kept at the highest position by the fans, the players in other sports, especially small-town players, have to work their way up to make a mark. Manu, who comes from an extremely patriarchal village of Haryana, Goria, is an inspiration to every girl who wants to touch the skies. Women like Phogat sisters and now Manu Bhaker are examples of millennials who are stepping forward for their country and wiping off the age-old shackles of a male-dominated society.

Now that the country is getting ahead in all the sports, this sport is no less and the shooters are preparing themselves to leave a mark in the most prestigious quadrennial tournament in Tokyo. Looking at the steady performance at various international tournaments, India is surely a tough competitor in the Olympics right from the beginning of the tournament. India has current world number one Apurvi Chandela, number seven Anjum Moudgil and now Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary. With such kind of players, medals in the Olympics are almost confirmed. India already dominates the world rankings in women's 10m air rifle and men's 10m air pistol. Therefore, it will be exciting to see how the tournament goes for the determined Manu Bhaker as she inches closer to her golden dream.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)