Manu Bhaker looks at her gun during the 10m air pistol qualification round in Tokyo on Sunday
India's medal hopes were dashed on Sunday when shooting's teen sensation Manu Bhaker had no luck on her side in her early elimination from 10m air pistol event of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This soon led to criticism of the Indian shooter on social media, questioning her commitments in the Games.
The 19-year-old shooter failed to finish inside the top 8 to qualify for the final of women's individual 10m air pistol qualification round. In fact, Bhaker, who finished with a total of 575 for 12th spot in the round, missed out on the final qualification berth by just two points.
During the qualification event, the shooters also took a long pause after firing 15 shots during 60-shot qualification event; leaving fans perplexed as to why Manu isn't shooting for long as the qualification round was not televised by the Indian broadcasters.
However, reports soon emerged that the nine-time World Cup winner had equipment malfunctioning, causing her not just to pause and change the equipment but also made her lose precious time.
Indiatvnews.com understands that no live telecast of the event led to much speculation on her performance and the shooter had to face unnecessary criticism. Her 2018 Asian Games partner and shooting star Heena Sidhu, who didn't make it to the Olympics, soon took to Twitter to condemn such fault-finding, explaining how Manu performed so well under pressure after the malfunctioning.
Sidhu wrote on her Twitter handle: "For all d people who are quick to judge that Manu succumbed to pressure. I just got to know what happened to her equipment in detail n how much time she lost. She didn't succumb to pressure she rose to it. Giving a score of 575 in less than 34 mins is n achievement of her nerves."
The two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist further wrote: "She was so close that if that last shot was an inner 10 she wud have been in the finals even after going through a complete weapon breakdown in between the match. Stop judging athletes on numbers coz maybe that's the only thing u can understand. Start understanding Performance!!"
Manu's 2020 Olympics, however, isn't over yet as she will be competing in 25m air pistol event and is also likely to compete with Saurabh Chaudhury in the mixed events later.
