Eyeing glory in next World Championship, double Olympic medallist shooter Manu Bhaker said Jaspal Rana will continue to be her “coach” despite the Dronacharya awardee being roped in as the High Performance trainer for pistol discipline by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI). Rana, a four-time Asian Games gold medallist, had a very bitter and public fallout with Manu before the Tokyo Olympics but they reconciled before last year’s Paris Games, where the latter made history by bagging two bronze medals.

“Honestly, I only have to say one thing that he (Rana) is my coach all I know and he is very good at what he does. He is very, very talented and he has been a great coach for me.

“All I know and all I can say is that he is my coach. Of course, he can be anyone else’s coach as well but for me he is my coach,” Manu said after winning the BBC Sportswomen of the Year 2024 award at a glittering function here on Monday night.

Under Rana’s personal guidance, Manu, who was struggling after the Tokyo Games, made a remarkable comeback and became the first Indian to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics since Independence.

She won bronze medals in 10m air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed team events in Paris to create history.

Talking about her future plans, Manu said: “We will be going for World Cups in April, and then we have some domestic competitions in June.

“It will be followed by another World Cup in Munich. Then we will have the World Championships, probably in late October or November. My target is the World Championships. I want to peak at the right time for the World Championships,” she added.

The season-ending World Championships will be held in Cairo, Egypt, from November 6-16.

Her unprecedented success in Paris wouldn’t have been possible without Rana’s guidance and Manu agrees to it. Manu, who turned 23 on Tuesday, considers Rana as her father figure, while the coach gives her the courage and confidence to seek and achieve great things in her sport.

Rana now has been roped in as the High Performance coach for pistol shooters by the NRAI but Manu still considers him as her mentor.

Rana had earlier served as the national coach for the juniors for about a decade, building a strong base for Indian shooting.

After the Paris Olympics, Manu took a long break and was working on her sore elbow.

Upon her return to the competitive circuit at the National trials here earlier this month, Manu finished second behind Rhythm Sangwan but she was satisfied with her performance.

“It was a pretty decent comeback. I am satisfied with what I have achieved in the trials,” she said.

Double Olympic medallist shooter Manu Bhaker said Jaspal Rana will continue to be her “coach” despite the Dronacharya awardee being roped in as the High Performance trainer for pistol discipline by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) earlier this month. Rana, a four-time Asian Games gold medallist, had a fall-out with Manu before the Tokyo Olympics but they reconciled before the last year’s Paris Games, where the latter made history by bagging two bronze medals. Under Rana’s personal guidance, Manu, who was struggling after the Tokyo Games, made a remarkable comeback and became the first Indian to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics since Independence.

She won bronze medals in 10m air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed team events in Paris to create history.

But it wouldn’t have been possible without Rana’s guidance and Manu agrees to it.

Rana now has been roped in as the High Performance coach for pistol shooters by the NRAI but Manu still considers him as her mentor.

“Honestly, I only have to say one thing that he (Rana) is my coach all I know and he is very good at what he does. He is very very talented and he has been a great coach for me.

“All I know and all I can say is that he is my coach. Of course, he can be anyone else’s coach as well but for me he is my coach,” Manu said after winning the BBC Sportswomen of the Year 2024 award at a glittering function here on Monday night.

Rana had earlier served as the National coach for the juniors for about a decade, building a strong base for Indian shooting.

After the Paris Olympics, Manu took a long break and was working on her sore elbow.

Upon her return to the competitive circuit at the National trials here earlier this month, Manu finished second behind Rhythm Sangwan but she was satisfied with her performance.

“It was a pretty decent comeback. I am satisfied with what I have achieved in the trials,” she said.

Talking about her future plans, Manu said: “We will be going for World Cups in April, and then we have some domestic competitions in June.

“It will be followed by another World Cup in Munich. Then we will have the World Championships, probably in late October or November. My target is the World Championships. I want to peak at the right time for the World Championships,” she added.

The season-ending World Championships will be held in Cairo, Egypt, from November 6-16.

Star Indian pistol shooter Manu Bhaker was named the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year on Monday, following her outstanding performance at the Paris Olympics. Manu was among five nominees for the award, alongside golfer Aditi Ashok, para shooter Avani Lekhara, India women’s cricket vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, and wrestler Vinesh Phogat — each recognised for their exceptional contributions to Indian sport. The nominees were shortlisted by an eminent jury of sports journalists and writers.

Now in its fifth edition, the ISWOTY Award celebrates and honours remarkable achievements of women athletes in India.

Manu, 22, won the award for winning two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics, becoming the first Indian athlete since Independence to win multiple medals at a single Games.

She secured bronze in the 10m air pistol individual event as well as the 10m air pistol mixed team event.

In 2018, Manu made history as the youngest Indian shooter to win a World Cup gold at just 16.

A recipient of the Arjuna Award, she previously won BBC’s Emerging Player of the Year award in 2021.

Other award winners on the night included para archer Sheetal Devi (BBC Emerging Player of the Year), former India women’s cricket captain Mithali Raj (BBC Lifetime Achievement Award), and para shooter Avani (BBC Para Sportswoman of the Year).

Chess player Tania Sachdev was conferred with the BBC Changemaker Award.

Manu expressed gratitude for the recognition and reflected on her journey to Olympic success.

“I thank BBC for honouring me. A few years ago, I won the Emerging Player award and now this year I got the big one. My journey was full of ups and downs,” Manu said in her address.

“After Tokyo I struggled a lot, lost many events but journey didn’t end, it continued. You can only write your own story and I did that in Paris. Now the journey will continue, and I would like to change the colour of the medal in Los Angeles (2028 Olympics).” 

Former World Cup winner Narmada Nithin Raju overcame a strong field, which included Asian Games medallist Ramita Jindal and Olympian Elavenil Valarivan, to not just create a national record but miss equalling the world mark by a fraction of a point on her way to clinching gold in the women’s 10m air rifle event at the 38th National Games in Dehradun on Thursday. Among other results, Haryana’s 2022 World Championships silver medallist Anish Bhanwala bagged gold in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event.

Narmada, representing Tamil Nadu, clinched the top podium finish with a score of 254.4, beating back the challenge from Maharashtra’s Arya Borse (252.5) and Ramita (230.4) in the eight-shooter final.

In the process, she broke the national mark of 252.9 set by Olympian Apurvi Chandela at the 2019 World Cup in New Delhi. The world record in the event is 254.5 points, set by Huang Yuting of China at last year’s ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi.

“I can’t express how happy I am. Representing my state is always a point of pride. Handling pressure on the range is part of the game, but today, it all came together,” Narmada said.

Reflecting on her journey, Narmada had some words for young athletes.

“Instead of looking for role models, be your own. Push yourself every day, and you’ll find success.” This was 23-year-old Narmada’s third-biggest career achievement in the event after she had won the 10m air rifle mixed team gold partnering Rudrankksh Patil at the 2023 Cairo World Cup and bagging a bronze at the World Cup in Bhopal the same year.

Self-assured and in total control of her nerves, Narmada, who was third at the end of the qualification round on Wednesday, shot a string of superb scores to stamp her authority over her more illustrious rivals in the final.

She consistently shot high scores with three of her shots achieving maximum impact of 10.9, while another two shots in the 24-shot final fetched her 10.8. She didn’t go below 10 in any of her 24 shots in the final.

Maharashtra’s Arya Borse, 22, too enjoyed a great outing and, on any other day would have clinched a top-podium finish with a score 252.5 but the 2022 junior world cup gold medallist in team event wouldn’t have known before the final that Narmada would come up with a record-breaking performance.

Haryana’s Asian Games bronze medallist shooter Ramita, 21, who had shot a superb qualification-round score of 634.9 to top the qualification, had to settle for a bronze medal despite coming up with another loaded performance, which saw her shoot consistently 10-plus scores.

Meanwhile, Bhanwala finished with 31 hits, three ahead of the silver medallist Gurpreet Singh of Services (28 hits) in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol final. Vijayveer Sidhu (Punjab) secured the bronze with 26 hits.

Bhanwala, who returned to competition after a lengthy break, was all smiles following the victory.

“This is my first medal after the Paralympics, and it feels great to be back. This is my second gold at the National Games my first was in Ahmedabad. The long break has been tough, but it’s all part of the journey,” he said.

Shooting is one discipline where many of the top players are taking part in the National Games.

All the shooters, who competed in the Paris Olympics last year, with the exception of double-medallist Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh, will be seen in action in the National Games.

In total, 364 shooters are representing 29 teams at the National Games, making shooting the star attraction of the Games.

Olympian Manu Bhaker’s grandmother and maternal uncle died in a road accident.© AFP

File photo of Manu Bhaker with her Olympics medals© AFP

Olympic medallist shooter Gagan Narang has urged athletes, who were not nominated for this year’s Khel Ratna Award, to not get disheartened but take it as a challenge to do better in future competitions. Some para-athletes like archer Harvinder Singh, who turned his Tokyo Games bronze into a gold in Paris last year, have expressed their disappointment at not being considered for Khel Ratna. Narang, the 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist who is now the Indian Olympic Association vice-president said medals, more than awards, should be the “ultimate goal” of athletes.

“For any athlete, an award is a source of encouragement. But when an athlete begins his journey, awards are not the ultimate goal. What truly matters is bringing medals home for the country,” Narang told PTI Videos.

“Awards will come and go. If not this time, one can get it next year. I don’t think it should be a de-motivating factor… they should get inspired to perform better in the future.” Narang said athletes had realised over time that country is above everything else, including medals.

“I think these athletes have also understood over a period of time that country matters the most and is the number one priority.” He also acknowledged the challenges faced by the jury in an Olympic year, where exceptional performances abound, making the selection process demanding.

“Keeping in mind the Olympic year, it is a very difficult job for the jury to take a call after seeing so many great performances,” he said.

Narang hoped the suggestions made by members of the Mission Olympic Cell (MOC), whose meeting was held on Tuesday, would be worked upon in the near future. Besides Narang, badminton great P. Gopichand and former table tennis player Kamlesh Mehta, among others, are members of the MOC.

“Several procedural suggestions were made by the members. I’m hopeful these changes will be implemented in the coming months.” 

File photo of Manu Bhaker© X (Twitter)

Manu Bhaker, double Olympic medallist , is in news after reports claimed the champion shooter’s name was missing from the list of nominated athletes for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The Khel Ratna is awarded to athletes with exceptional performances. With Manu’s name missing, despite being the first Indian athlete since independence to win two Olympic medals in a single edition of the Games, the Sports Ministry came under scrutiny. However, Manu Bhaker has now said that there might have been a lapse on her part and that ‘it is being corrected.’ 

“With regards to ongoing issue for my nomination for the most prestigious Khel Ratna award-I would like to state that as an athlete my role is to play and perform for my country. Awards and recognition keeps me motivated but are not my goal. I believe there has been a lapse, maybe on my part while filing for the nomination which is being corrected. Irrespective of the award I shall remain motivated to win more medals for my country. It is a request to everyone, please do not speculate on this matter,” Manu Bhaker wrote in a post on X.

pic.twitter.com/MPvf7uKJKM

— Manu Bhaker (@realmanubhaker) December 24, 2024

Meanwhile, double Olympic medallist shooter Manu Bhaker’s coach Jaspal Rana has castigated the Sports Ministry, Sports Authority of India and the National Rifle Association of India, holding them responsible for “ignoring” his ward’s credentials for the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award.

“I will hold all of them responsible. How can anyone even say Manu did not apply? She made history by becoming the first Indian to win two Olympic medals in the same Olympics. Her name should have been there automatically. Don’t the people at the helm know who Manu Bhaker is and what are her credentials? This humiliation might just affect her progress,” Rana told PTI Videos in an interview.

The national coach felt the “new requirement” where sportspersons have to apply directly for the awards was not in the best interest of sports, and was a bit demeaning.

The ministry norms allow athletes to self-nominate instead of relying on the federations and other institutions for it. The selection committee is, however, allowed to consider names which may not be among the applicants.

While the ministry claimed that Bhaker did not apply for the award, her father Ram Kishan Bhaker, a chief engineer in Merchant Navy, said the youngster had followed the due process.

With PTI inputs 

File photo of Manu Bhaker and her coach Jaspal Rana© X (Twitter)