India's emerging shooter Manu Bhaker scripted history on Sunday, July 28 when she clinched bronze in the women's 10m air pistol event at the ongoing Paris Olympics and became the first female shooter from India to scale the milestone.
Manu's achievement put her on the list of some of the most iconic shooters that the country has produced. Notably, it was Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore who had helped India bag its first medal in shooting at the Olympics.
Rathore clinched silver in the men's double trap category at the Athens Olympics. Four years later, Abhinav Bindra rewrote the history books and claimed the first gold for India in shooting. Bindra's achievement came in the men's 10m air rifle event at the Beijing Olympics.
The London Olympics in 2012 witnessed Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar clinch a bronze and a silver respectively in the men's 10m air rifle and the men's 25m rapid fire pistol events.
Manu's bronze on Sunday ended India's 12-year-long wait for a shooting medal at the Olympics. While it was Manu who did the hard yards at the shooting range and held her nerves to script history, her coach Jaspal Rana played a monumental role in preparing her for the moment and ensured that she brought laurels to the country.
Veteran sports journalist Samip Rajguru caught up with Rana for an exclusive interview after Manu's success. Rana heaped praise on Manu and mentioned that she didn't leave a single stone unturned in gearing up for the Games in Paris.
"There is a need to build trust in every relationship and it is not just limited to the relationship shared between a guru and his disciple. Definitely, Manu is one of the most hard-working athletes that I have seen. Her efforts are not only limited to shooting. She also has a few injury-prone muscles and she makes sure that she undergoes proper rehab and performs yoga to keep herself fit and agile," said Rana.
"I am happy to work with her. It's a proud moment that she cracked the medal."
Rana also revealed that he never tried to alter Manu's technique and instead focused on making the right adjustments in her own natural technique to produce the right results.
"Manu is very hardworking. She does things slightly different than others. I have not done anything exceptional to her. I just made her realise her calibre and who she is as an athlete. Moreover, the ongoing generation of athletes is much ahead of us. Her technique is entirely different from the one that I followed during my playing career.
"We have worked on fine-tuning her technique. We have worked on her diet, fitness regime and sleeping pattern," he added.
Rana also admitted that he allows Manu to switch off as and when she is not in the shooting range but also mentioned that once she comes for training, he makes sure that she is fully switched on and focused.
With two more events left, Manu still has the chance to bring more success to the country at the ongoing event.
