Manu Bhaker was asked by Jaspal Rana, her coach, to take a three-month break from shooting after she had pushed all limits to win two bronze medals for India at the Paris Olympics. A third medal eluded her in the sports pistol final on August 3, 2024. If 90 days was the prescribed break, 40 are already over. Manu has spent time attending several interactions and felicitation functions. She has been featured as the superstar of the Olympics. Nothing wrong in that.
The challenge begins once she returns, hopefully, to the shooting ranges in November. It will be like starting from scratch, and building step by step. This is the beauty of sports. Once the medals have been won and celebrated, one has to relax, unwind and reboot. Given the stringent selection policy which the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has in place, which could still be still tweaked, one thing is certain: Manu will have to go through the grind all over again, train and be part of trials. The NRAI will not make any exception whatsoever for her two medals won at Paris 2024.
Whether this policy is good, bad or too harsh is debatable. Past experiences have shown that no single athlete can be given concessions because of glory at the Olympics or Asian Games. There has to be a constant evaluation process and scores are taken into account. Manu has made it clear she will not compete in the ISSF World Cup finals in New Delhi in October. That’s fine, as it is during her prescribed break. But she will have to return to the ranges and train. It will be a fresh challenge, and to shut out everything will be interesting. As one who has seen failure, at the Tokyo Olympics, and success in Paris, Manu has seen it all. Yet, the challenge of starting from scratch will be new. It is like getting promoted to the next class in school and having to get back to the books again. The syllabus will be different, and learning will be harder.
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This is exactly what lies in store for Manu, as she launches her campaign for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. All those who have followed Indian shooting over the last 25 years will vouch how hard Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang trained to be part of five and four Olympics respectively. It called for extreme dedication and commitment to go through the process again and again. For Bindra to win an Olympic gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and then continue to aspire for more glory in two more editions was defining. In 2012 in London, he had not prepared that well. How he shut himself from the world and prepared for a final fling in 2016 for the Rio Olympics is well known. That he finished fourth was bad luck, but in terms of hours and effort put in, Bindra was harsh on himself. He had defined what it is to be dedicated and shut out everything else other than shooting.
Last week, Narang spoke to this writer and explained how shooting is a sport where the athlete is competing against himself or herself. “I was competing in three events, and to keep doing it over and over again, it was not easy. But I enjoyed it,” he said Narang, harking back to his bronze from the London Olympics. He also spoke of how past results do not matter and shooters who won medals or failed have resumed training, post-Paris 2024. An extended break may be necessary in some cases, but Narang said he had no problem retuning to shooting each time, as he enjoyed that process.
Even Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec, whose casual style of shooting went viral on the Internet when he won a silver medal in Paris, has returned to training. He features in a video put out by the ISSF.
So, Manu will have to reset and restart to compete against the rest. The depth in Indian shooting is there for all to see and Manu knows best how she made the cut for three events in Paris 2024 through blazing performances in the Olympic Selection Trials. Air pistol events have seen many young shooters soak in the pressure and compete hard. Of course, all will not have the same mental strength as Manu, as she was extremely determined to make a mark in the latest Olympics.
She is also aware that training and preparation for the LA Olympics means she will have to peak in 2025 and 2026 as well, for the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. Not having won a gold medal at the last Asian Games in Hangzhou, Manu knows there is so much more to be achieved. Tough? Not if she shows the same commitment and passion.
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