Faridabad (Haryana) [India], July 30 (ANI): Following her historic bronze medal win, Ashok Kumar, the vice-chancellor of the Sports University of Haryana, announced that star shooter Manu Bhaker will be made the brand ambassador of the institution.
India’s shooting ace Manu Bhaker made history on Tuesday when she became the first Indian women’s athlete to win a second medal at the same Olympics. Bhaker and her partner Sarabjot Singh secured bronze in the 10 m air pistol mixed team event. Earlier, Bhaker had won bronze in the women’s individual 10 m air pistol event.
Following her win, Ashok told ANI, “We will make her the ambassador of our institution. It will bring a lot of motivation and energy to our players and girls.”
Also, Ashok Mittal, the General Secretary of the Haryana Rifle Association, said that Manu’s accomplishment is a matter of pride, making her the first Indian athlete in the post-independence era to get two medals in a single Olympics.
“There are no words to describe this. The preparation is on for the third medal too (for Manu). A lot of our players have gone to Paris and we hope they will do well,” he added.
Manu-Sarabjot beat South Korea’s Lee Wonho and Oh Ye Jin 16-10 in the bronze medal play-off match. With this medal, India’s medal tally increases to two at the Paris Olympics. Both Bhaker and Sarabjot shot consistently with regular 10s in the series against the Koreans.
Manu is the first athlete from the Indian contingent after independence to get two medals in a single edition of the Paris Olympics. Earlier in the 1900 Olympics, Norman Pritchard won two medals while representing India, both silver in the 200 m and 200 m hurdles.
Manu-Sarabjot’s shooting mixed team medal is India’s first-ever shooting team medal in Olympic history.
Also, Bhaker joins an elite group of athletes to have multiple individual medals at the Olympics: PV Sindhu (badminton silver at Rio 2016 and bronze medal at Tokyo 2020) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics).
Earlier on Monday, Manu-Sarabjot secured 580-20x points in total to finish third, The gold medal match will take place between Turkiye (582-18x) and Serbia (581-24x).
In the qualification round of the mixed team 10 m air pistol event, each member of a team got to shoot a total of 30 shots in a time span of 30 minutes. Each series of shots consists of 10 shots per player and 20 in total. The top four teams got the privilege of qualifying for medal rounds, with the top two teams playing for gold and the third and fourth-placed teams locking horns for bronze.
Manu-Sarabjot, sat at six with 193 points, with Manu getting 98 and Sarabjot getting 95. In their second series, Manu and Sarabjot secured a total of 195 points, with Manu getting 98 and Sarabjot getting 97.
In their third series, Manu-Sarabjot secured 192 points, with Manu getting 95 points and Sarabjot getting 97 points.
At the end of all three series, Manu-Sarabjot had the final score of 580-20x. (ANI)
