Bhaker secures India’s 11th Paris Olympics quota in shooting

Manu shot 24 in the final, bowing out in a shootoff to miss out on yet another international medal. Iran’s Haniyeh Rostamiyan finished second, spoiling a Chinese medal sweep as the powerhouse nation took all the other spots from one to four.

Given China could only claim one quota and Haniyeh already had hers secured earlier, the second Paris 2024 spot was clinched by the Indian. Before bowing out, Manu was often in the top two and throughout in medal position before a score of two and three in the seventh and eighth series saw her go into a shootoff with Zhao Nan of China for fourth. She missed out but the quota had already been secured.

“The aim was obviously the quota because there are few chances left to win them after this. So yes, I am happy that I have won the quota, but a podium finish would have been better. I have been working on a few improvements and I feel I am on the right track but will need to work even harder from here,” said Manu.

Earlier she had topped the qualification stage with a strong 591 as teammates Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan finished 17th and 23rd with scores of 579 and 576 respectively.

India picked up four more medals, all silver, on the day, as Manu, Esha and Rhythm finished second in the 25m pistol team event while Divyansh Singh Panwar and Ramita also lost out 12-16 to a Chinese pair in the 10m air rifle mixed team gold medal match. Divyansh and Ramita had also shot well to top qualification with a combined score of 631.1.

Simranpreet Kaur Brar also won a double silver in the final medal event of the day, the junior women’s 25m pistol. First, she teamed up with Megana Sadula and Tejaswini to win the team competition with a combined total of 1,728 to finish behind China. She then shot 28 in the final to finish behind gold medal winner Liang Xiaoya of China in the individual final.