Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh scripted their name in history forever in Paris after winning India's first Olympic medal in 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event. The spectacular duo won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 with an astonishing win over the Republic of Korea duo, who they defeated by 16-10. This medal was more historic for Bhaker as she became the first Indian athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics since independence.
The last time an Indian athlete achieved this milestone was back in the 1900 Paris Games when British-origin Norman Pritchard won two silver medals while representing India in men's 200m and men's 200m hurdles events. It was an atmosphere of celebration at Manu Bhaker's house but his father also highlighted how this country doesn't give importance to other sports like it does to Cricket. He also vouched that the Olympics are much bigger than cricket.
Manu Bhaker's father makes bold claim
“This is not going to happen because people are crazy about cricket in India. Photographs of the losing sides are also printed. Even when they go to the airport, their photo appears. We should also start giving respect to other sports, which are not given that much. Olympics is much bigger than cricket. Only 8 countries play cricket and out of 8, four countries are strong and those four countries have to win the World Cup but Olympics, in which there are 202 countries, but here we promote cricket more,” said Manu Bhaker's father in a conversation with AAJ TAK.
Manu Bhaker wins her second medal
Another big milestone that Manu Bhaker achieved with this is that she became the fourth Indian athlete to win two Olympic medals after Pritchard, Sushil Kumar, and PV Sindhu. For the majority of the medal match, Bhaker had to carry Sarabjot against the Republic of Korea pair Wonho Lee and Ye Jin Oh. They lost the first two points, but then came back strong with 10.7 and 10.5 for Bhaker and Sarabjot, respectively. Sarabjot started with an 8.6 shot, and Bhaker started with 10.2.
They won eight consecutive points despite the fact that Sarabjot shot a 9.6 in the fifth round. Bhaker overcame Sarabjot's previous shortcomings to score two more points with a 10.6 and a 9.4 respectively. With her eighth shot of 8.3, Bhaker made an uncommon error. Lee struggled to score high, but Sarabjot gained momentum toward the end. With a combined score of 19.3, the Indian team's 11th shot was below par. Before they scored the winning point, they gave up two more points.
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