Shooters Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh combined to win the 2024 Paris Olympics bronze medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre on Tuesday.
The duo beat South Korea’s Lee Wonho and Oh Ye Jin 16-10 in the bronze medal match to bag India’s second medal in Paris.
The win also means that Bhaker now holds the distinction of being independent India’s first athlete to win two Olympic medals in a single edition of the Games. She had earlier won the women’s 10m air pistol bronze on Sunday.
Norman Pritchard had won two silver medals for India back in the 1900 Games, which were incidentally, also held in Paris.
Bhaker and Singh had a nervy start to the bronze medal match as the latter recorded a below par 8.8 with his first shot of the match, helping the South Korean pair to take a 2-0 lead.
However, things turned around quickly as the Indians won the next four series in a row to take an 8-2 lead.
Though Lee and Oh fought back, Bhaker and Singh continued to build on their lead with some consistent shooting.
Bhaker, too, shot a disappointing 8.3 in the eighth series, but a quick timeout helped her control her nerves as she got back to it with a shot of 10.0 in the next series, which India pocketed by just 0.1 point.
“The time out at 10-6 was just to calm ourselves down,” said Bhaker in an interview with the broadcasters. “Shooting is a sport where your heart races very fast, you got to control that.”
The Indian pair shot a combined total of less than 20 only four times in the 13 series played in the match. They lost three of those. However, their last score under 20 – a 19.6 in the 13th series – confirmed Bhaker and Singh the bronze medal.
Singh had, earlier in Chateauroux, failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 10m air pistol event by the virtue of one less inner ten shot. He was level at 577 points with Germany’s Robin Walter, but the latter had 17 inner ten shots compared to the Indian’s 16.
“Forget the previous shot and focus on the next shot,” said Singh. “That was the only thing in my mind towards the final few series.
“When I know I am shooting with Manu [Bhaker], I am usually confident,” he added.
Bhaker, who had a disastrous campaign at the Tokyo Olympics three years back, has put that disappointment behind her. The 22-year-old from Haryana said the pre-match discussion was just to give it their all.
“The only thing we can control is doing our best,” she said. “Before the match, we spoke about doing that and leaving the rest to god.”
Bhaker is now tied with Sushil Kumar and PV Sindhu as the most decorated individual Olympic medallists from India post-independence. There will now be expectations to go one better, as she will take to the Chateauroux range in the women’s 25m pistol event, which is scheduled to start on August 2.
In the trap shooting men’s event, Prithviraj Tondaiman’s campaign ended in the qualification stage. Tondaiman finished in 21st position out of 30 competitors, where only the top six would reach the final.
The Indian shot scores of 22, 25 and 21 in the first three series on Monday. On Tuesday though, he hit perfect scores of 25 each in the fourth and fifth series to finish with a total of 118.
In the women’s qualification event that started on Tuesday, Shreyasi Singh and Rajeshwari Kumari did not have a good start.
Shreyasi Singh scored scores of 22, 22 and 24 in the first three series for a total of 68 to be placed 22nd on the list. Kumari also scored a total of 68 but is placed one spot higher than her compatriot because her third series was a perfect 25.
The duo will continue in the qualification event tomorrow.