Olympian Manu Bhaker’s grandmother and maternal uncle died in a road accident.© AFP
Paris Olympic medallist shooter Manu Bhaker’s maternal grandmother and maternal uncle died in a road accident in Bhiwani, Haryana on Sunday, police said. The accident occurred on Mahendragarh bypass road in Charkhi Dadri area when a car hit their scooty, officials said. The two died on the spot and the car driver fled from the spot after the accident, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Suresh Kumar said. He said that the victims have been identified as Manu Bhaker’s grandmother Savitri Devi (70) and maternal uncle Yudhveer (50), who worked as a driver in Haryana roadways.
Kumar said the bodies have been sent for post-mortem and efforts are underway to nab the car driver.
This bad news comes days after Manu Bhaker was conferred with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
At the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, as she basked in the glory of winning the honour, the 22-year-old ace shooter confirmed that the top layer of her medals had indeed peeled off, which seemed to have left her quite upset.
Manu last year had scripted history at the Paris Olympics. She became the first-ever athlete in independent India to bad two medals in one edition of the quadrennial event.
The ace shooter opened India’s medal tally in the Olympics after she secured third place in the women’s individual 10m air pistol event, becoming the first-ever woman shooter to win an Olympic medal for India. Following that, Sarabjot Singh and Bhaker won the bronze medal in the 10m air pistol (mixed team) event, which was India’s first-ever shooting team medal.
In her final event, she narrowly missed out on the historic grand treble and finished fourth in the women’s 25m pistol shooting event. She missed out on the opportunity to become the first Indian to win three medals at the Olympics.
(With agency inputs)
Topics mentioned in this article
