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Manu Bhaker took to shooting like a duck to water, establishing herself as among India’s shooting stars very early in her career. While she first took to sports like tennis, skating, and boxing, it was in martial arts (Thang-Ta) that she won medals at the national level. She switched to shooting at the age of 14 and immediately picked up the sport.
The Haryana native rose to fame at the 2017 national shooting championships, where she beat Olympian and former World No. 1 Heena Sidhu to the 10m Air Pistol gold medal. She followed it up with a silver medal at the Asian Junior Championships the same year.
With Manu set to be one of India's biggest medal prospects at the 2024 Paris Olympics, we take a look at three of her best performances in her career to date.
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#3 Manu Bhaker makes her mark at the Youth Olympics
While Manu Bhaker entered the Youth Olympics in 2018 as one of the rising stars, she established herself with her performance in Buenos Aires. Her women’s 10m air pistol gold medal in Argentina made her India’s first Youth Olympic Games gold medalist in shooting.
She registered 576 in the qualification round to top the charts. In the final, she came out all guns blazing, with four shots out of the first five in the 10s or above. After the second five-shot series, she kept a 0.2 lead over Russia's Iana Enina.
In the end, Manu, with a score of 236.5, beat the Russian (235.9) to the top spot on the podium.
#2 Triumph at the Commonwealth Games
After her fantastic performance in Buenos Aires, she carried over her form to the Commonwealth Games later that year. She took home the 10m air pistol gold medal, beating several established stars, including her compatriot Heena Sidhu, who settled for the silver.
Having registered the top two scores in the qualifying rounds, Manu and Heena replicated that in the final at the Belmont Shooting Centre. Manu, then aged 16, was the star of the show as she shot 240.9 to break the Commonwealth Games record, with Sidhu (234) finishing as the runner-up.
#3 History made at the World Cup
Manu Bhaker truly established herself as one of the sport's finest shooters in 2018, with the World Cup giving her the stage to showcase her growing prowess for the first time that year.
Having secured a quota place for the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Manu had to fight the odds to emerge victorious at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico.
She shot 237.5 to beat the local favourite Alejandra Zavala Vazquez to the 10m air pistol gold medal by 0.4 points. Manu and Alejandra both went into the final shots with a chance to clinch the top spot on the podium. While the Indian shot 10.6, the Mexican failed to perform under pressure, managing just 8.8 to finish as the runner-up.
In doing so, Manu became the youngest Indian shooter to bag a gold medal at the World Cup, beating the joint record (23 years) held by Gagan Narang (2006) and Rahi Sarnobat (2013).
