Manu Bhaker heads to her second Olympics in Paris as the leading Pistol shooter in the Indian squad.
She is set to represent India in the 10m Air Pistol, 25m Pistol, and the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team events for the second Olympics in succession after Tokyo 2020.
Manu is the only Indian athlete (in shooting) from Tokyo to secure a quota for Paris. The other returnees from Tokyo – Anjum Moudgil, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, and Elavenil Valarivan all made it to the squad via the NRAI trials.
What has Changed since Tokyo?
Manu has returned to training with Jaspal Rana as her private coach after falling out right before the Tokyo Olympics.
She had great success training under Rana who was associated with the National team then. She has herself admitted that she works better with Rana.
Qualification
Manu qualified for Paris by finishing 5th in 25m Pistol at the Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon in 2023.
She managed to retain her quota by topping the trials held by NRAI. She also emerged as the leading shooter in the 10m Air Pistol event.
She did not compete in the Munich World Cup after topping the gruelling trials.
Tokyo 2020 Results
Manu did not have a great time in Tokyo. Her best performance was in the 10m Pistol Mixed Team event where she combined with Saurabh Chaudhary and topped the initial qualifying round.
However, they finished 7th in the next round and did not qualify for the Medal round.
In the 10m Air Pistol event, she finished 12th with a score of 575 after losing time due to a pistol malfunction. The cut-off for the finals was 577.
In the 25m Pistol event, she finished 15th with a score of 582. The cut for the finals was 584.
Recent Results
Compared to her results leading up to the Tokyo Olympics, she has had a quiet time on the World Cup circuit.
She has been out of the 10m Air Pistol team and has only made the finals in 4 World Cups across both individual events. She has won a Bronze in both of her events in this Olympic Cycle.
Last time around, she was a favorite, especially in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event winning all 5 World Cup Golds before Tokyo with Saurabh Chaudhary leading up to the Olympics.
She had also made the finals of the individual event multiple times across the World Cups.
Her most recent results have been from the NRAI trials which she topped.
Trial Scores
Medal Chances
Let us take a look at the cutoff scores to make the finals for all the World Cup stages this year.
Finals Cutoff for World Cups in 2024
Looking at the numbers from the World Cups this year, Manu has a shot at making the finals if she can shoot the high scores she shot at the NRAI trials in both the 10m Air Pistol & 25m Pistol events.
10m Air Pistol Mixed Team
Manu is teamed up with Sarabjot Singh in the Mixed Team event & has an opportunity to open India’s medal tally on the opening day of the Olympics.
The current format is extremely competitive as they need to finish in the Top 4 after 30 shots each in 45 minutes to make the medal rounds. The top 2 teams will face off for the Gold while the 3rd & 4th placed teams will face off for the Bronze.
India has not made the medal rounds in any of the recent World Cups. India had won 2 Golds and a Silver medal in the World Cups in 2023. They will face tough competition from the likes of China, Serbia, Ukraine, and Turkiye among others.
