Indian shooting sensation Manu Bhaker missed out on a historic third medal at the ongoing Paris Olympic Games by a whisker as the shooter finished fourth in the 25m pistol final event on Saturday. Manu had earlier won two medals in the ongoing Games and was gunning for an unprecedented third medal at the Games.
However, her charge towards an unthinkable hat-trick of medals at the Single Games, came to an end when she finished fourth in the 25m pistol final, losing out on a bronze medal by the thinnest of margins in a shoot-off. She shot a total of 28 and lost a bronze medal shoot-off to Hungary’s Major Veronika, who eventually clinched the bronze.
The Indian ace shooter Manu Bhaker has scripted one of the greatest redemption stories for India. She clinched two bronze medals in the Paris Olympics – one each in the 10m air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed event.
Manu qualified for the third final at the Single Games when she stormed into the medal match of the 25m pistol event. But she fell agonisingly short in the final, losing a medal in a shoot-off.
Manu was placed inside the top three for the majority of the final. She had a tough start to the final hitting two of the five shots on target in the first series of Stage 1. In the final, scores were not point-based, instead a shot of 10.2 or over was counted as a hit, while anything below it was said a miss.
After a two-shot opening series, the 22-year-old Indian stormed back with two series of four hits each. When the elimination began, she shot three and then backed it up with a perfect five and two consecutive fours.
But a two-shot series in the next one brought her down from second place to the brink of elimination, where she needed to outclass Veronika in the shoot-off. Manu shot three out of five, while the Hungarian shot four as the Indian missed out on a historic bronze. But it will still go down as one of the greatest ever Olympic Games campaigns by an Indian athlete.