“Took me long to overcome…”: History-maker Bhaker on her Tokyo Olympics 2020 gun malfunction

Bhaker and her partner Sarabjot Singh secured bronze in the 10 M air pistol mixed team event.

Following her historic bronze medal win at the Paris Olympics with Sarabjot Singh in the 10 m air pistol mixed team event, star shooter Manu Bhaker opened up on her weapon malfunction during the previous Olympics and how she had a difficult time overcoming it to reach where she is right now.

India’s shooting ace Manu Bhaker made history on Tuesday when she became the first Indian woman to win two medals at the same Olympics. Bhaker and her partner Sarabjot Singh secured bronze in the 10 M air pistol mixed team event. Earlier, Bhaker had won bronze in the women’s individual 10M air pistol event.

Talking to JioCinema after her medal win, Bhaker said, “Okay, so after Tokyo, I was very disappointed and how the events turned out to be for me was not very good. It took me a long time to overcome that. However, I came back stronger. So what is now is what matters. The past shall remain in the past.”

This Olympic has marked a perfect redemption tale for Bhaker. During the 10 m air pistol qualification round during the Tokyo Olympics, her gun malfunctioned, which caused her to lose a lot of time. She was left with a very short amount of time to carry out her quota of shots. She missed on the top eight finish required to qualify for the final round and finished at 12th spot.

In the 25-metre pistol event, she failed to qualify further, finishing in the 15th spot. Her 10 m air pistol mixed team event did not go well either, as she finished in seventh overall.

Earlier on Monday, Manu-Sarabjot secured 580-20x points in total to finish third, The gold medal match will take place between Turkiye (582-18x) and Serbia (581-24x).

In the qualification round of the mixed team 10 m air pistol event, each member of a team got to shoot a total of 30 shots in a time span of 30 minutes. Each series of shots consists of 10 shots per player and 20 in total. The top four teams got the privilege of qualifying for medal rounds, with the top two teams playing for gold and the third and fourth-placed teams locking horns for bronze.

Manu-Sarabjot, sat at six with 193 points, with Manu getting 98 and Sarabjot getting 95. In their second series, Manu and Sarabjot secured a total of 195 points, with Manu getting 98 and Sarabjot getting 97.
In their third series, Manu-Sarabjot secured 192 points, with Manu getting 95 points and Sarabjot getting 97 points.

At the end of all three series, Manu-Sarabjot had the final score of 580-20x. (ANI)

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