Paris Olympics 2024: Manu Bhaker Qualifies For Women 25m Pistol Final, On Track For Hat-Trick Of Medals

Indian shooter Manu Bhaker remained on course for an unbelievable third individual medal at the Paris Olympics 2024. Manu Bhaker qualified in 2nd place for the women 25m pistol event with a combined score of 590-24x with only Hungarian shooter Veronika Major with a total of 592-27x doing better.

Manu Bhaker will now be gunning to become the first-ever Indian sportsperson to win three individual medals from a single edition of the Olympic Games. She had earlier equalled Norman Pritchard’s 124-year-old record by become the first Indian to win two individual medals at the Olympics – having won the 10m air pistol bronze medal and the 10m air pistol mixed team bronze medal with Sarabjeet Singh.

However, the other Indian shooter in the fray in the same event, Esha Singh could only manage a 18th place finish with a total of 581-17x combined score in Precision and Rapid qualifying event. Only the top 8 out of the 40 shooters qualified for Saturday’s final.

Manu Bhaker had registered fourteen 10s in a row during Rapid stage.

Hoping for a similar or better show tomorrow. #Olympics pic.twitter.com/ov3RWbEOuA

— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) August 2, 2024

Manu Bhaker set the Chateauroux Shooting Range on fire in the Rapid section of the qualifying event – hitting 14 10s in a row from shot no. 44 to 57. She managed to score 296 from the Rapid section after posting 294 in the Precision leg of the event.

However, it was Major who equalled Olympic record by posting score of 592 achieved by Chinese shooter Jingjing Zhang at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

All three medals for India so far having come from shooting with Manu Bhaker involved in two of them and Swapnil Kusale bagging the bronze in the 50m 3 Position Rifle event on Thursday.

Manu zoomed to the second position during the third series of qualification when she shot nine 10s in Precision round and seven 10s in a row in the Rapid rounds. She registered a 197 score in the first series and 196 in the second series before wrapping up her brilliant performance with a score of 197 in the final series.

The 22-year-old Manu Bhaker, a Youth Olympics champion, could also become the most successful Indian shooter at the Olympic Games. The women’s 25m pistol final will take place on Saturday from 1pm IST.