Manu Bhaker eyes third medal at Paris Olympics 2024; qualifies for 25m women's precision finals

In-form Manu Bhaker stormed into the 25m pistol women's precision finals at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Friday, August 2. She bagged two bronze medals in individual and mixed events and will target the historic third medal at the 33rd Summer Games on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Manu was brilliant throughout the 25m pistol women's precision qualification and maintained her position in the top three. She finished second with a score of 590-24x to finish in the top eight. India's other participant Esha Singh was poor with her shots from the beginning and finished 18th with a total score of 581-17x. 

Hungary's Major Veronika finished at the top with just a two-point lead over Bhaker and levelled the previous Olympic record of 592 in the 25m pistol women's precision event. Bhaker was third in the standings after the first and second series played in the qualification. 

Bhaker jumped to the second position during the third series where she shot nine 10s in precision and seven 10s in 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. 

She became the first-ever Indian to reach the finals of any Olympic event three times. If she manages to win a medal in the finals on Saturday, Bhaker will become the first Indian to clinch three medals in a single edition of the Summer Olympic Games. 

Bhaker opened India's medal account at the Paris Olympics with a bronze in the women's individual 10m air pistol event on July 31. She became the first Indian female shooter to win an Olympic medal and then further wrote her name in history books with another bronze in a 10m mixed team event with Sarabjot Singh.