Manu Bhaker wins historic medal

Paris: Manu Bhaker became the first woman shooter from India ever to win an Olympics medal, after claiming a bronze medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.

She was just 0.1 behind Kim Yeji when she was eliminated in the final on Sunday. Kim eventually won a silver medal while her Korean compatriot Oh Ye Jin claimed a gold medal.

Three years after her Tokyo Olympics was derailed by a pistol malfunction, the 22-year-old claimed a bronze medal behind two South Korean shooters. The nine-time World Cup medalist is only the fifth Indian to win a medal in shooting.

Earlier, on the first day of the Paris Olympics, Manu Bhaker had finished 3rd in the women’s 10m air pistol event with a score of 580 in the qualification rounds. Manu Bhaker had also shot the highest number of Perfect Scores (27) in the qualification to breeze through to the final. In the process, Manu Bhaker had become the 1st woman shooter from India to reach an Olympic final in an individual event in the last 20 years. The last time an Indian woman shooter had reached the final, it was Suma Shirur, who had blazed a trail into the final of the 10m air rifle event at the Athens Olympics held in Greece’s capital in 2004.

It must be noted that Manu Bhaker also became the first Indian woman to qualify for the 10m air pistol women’s final round at any Olympics.

Of the four medals Indian shooters have won at the Olympics before Paris 2024, none had been won by an Indian woman shooter. The last medals for India from the shooting ranges of an Olympics, came at London 2012, where rifle shooter Gagan Narang (bronze in men’s 10m air rifle) and pistol shooter Vijay Kumar (silver in men’s 25m rapid fire pistol) won medals.