Shooter Manu Bhaker won India’s first medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics when she clinched the bronze in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol event on Sunday with a score of 221.7.
She became the first Indian woman shooter to win a medal at the Olympics. Earlier, Manu had finished third in the qualification round, becoming the first Indian woman in 20 years to reach an Olympic shooting final in an individual event since Suma Shirur in 2004.
This was Manu’s redemption after a pistol malfunction in the qualifications at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 had reduced her to tears.
Shooters are often reduced to a bundle of nerves because of the mental focus and concentration the sport demands. While some resort to meditation in order to prepare for an event, Manu had found a unique method to calm her nerves at the third Olympic trials at the MP Shooting Academy in Bhopal in May.
A day before her event, she played the Indian national anthem in her hotel room in Bhopal.
“Baaki sab match ki taiyari kar rahe hain aur Manu violin baja rahi thi (Everyone else is preparing for the match, and Manu is playing the violin),” her coach Jaspal Rana had said.
Manu was gifted the violin by her brother and took her first music class just four months before the Olympics.
Source Agencies
