Manu Baquer wins bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics ©X (Twitter)
When it comes to sports, especially the Olympics, Haryana has produced some of the best athletes in the country, mostly in the form of boxers and wrestlers. However, Manu Bhakar picked up a contrasting hobby only after trying out tennis, skating, boxing etc in school. While sports was Manu’s passion, she also excelled in the martial art called ‘Tanta’ and won medals at the national level. Eventually, Bhakar took to shooting like a fish adapts to water and showed early on that she was destined to reach the absolute pinnacle in the sport. That journey finally culminated in a glorious moment of winning a historic bronze medal in the 10m air pistol at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Manu was just 14 years old, shortly after the 2016 Rio Olympics, when he decided to try shooting. Bakker had tried many different sports but quickly fell in love with shooting. Within a week, he asked his father to buy him a sports pistol as he wanted to take up the sport professionally.
Her father, who has been a supportive figure throughout Bakar’s journey, bought her a gun without much thought, and the rest is history.
Manu has been waving the tricolour high in national and international competitions since she was a teenager. Manu Bakel made headlines in the 2017 National Shooting Championships when she defeated Olympian and former world number one Heena Sidhu. Her record score of 242.3 created history and topped the record books in the 10m air pistol category.
She also won a silver medal at the 2017 Asian Junior Championships and in 2018 made her debut at the International Sport Shooting Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Guadalajara, where she broke the junior world record in the qualification round of the tournament, announcing Manu’s arrival at the world level.
Manu became the youngest Indian to win an ISSF World Cup gold medal at just 16 years old. Bhakkar went on to win gold in the 10m Air Pistol Individual and Mixed Team events.
At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, Manu Bakel made history by winning the gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol and setting a new tournament record.
Manu Bakel also secured a place in the Tokyo Olympics with his fourth-place finish at the 2019 Munich ISSF World Cup. He then won a gold and silver medal in the 10m air pistol at the 2021 New Delhi ISSF World Cup, boosting the country’s hopes of winning a medal in shooting at the Tokyo Olympics. However, despite Bakel leading the qualification rounds, a pistol malfunction meant he missed out on the podium.
The shooter, who hails from Haryana, was, however, keen to make amends with Pari.
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