CHENNAI: In her 60th and final shot during the qualification stage on Sunday, pistol ace Manu Bhaker needed to be bang on target. She was in a do-or-die situation.
If she could manage a perfect score, she'd stay in contention or else it meant an early exit for her first event — women's 10m air pistol — in the Olympics. But what followed was a disaster. She could only manage an 8 and thus her fate was sealed.
After Saturday's setback, Manu, touted to be one of the biggest medal hopes, crashing out early was a big blow for India.
However, it was later confirmed that Manu had issues with her pistol during the early part of the qualification stage.
At a stage where every shot is worth gold, she was forced to fix her pistol after the cocking lever broke. To make matters worse, she also had a circuit malfunction.
"Basically, you pull this lever and the barrel opens so you can load. The lever broke so she couldn't load and then the circuit also stopped working," India high performance manager Ronak Pandit, who has been coaching Manu for around two months, told this daily.
That meant she lost out on valuable time. The participants have to shoot 60 shots in 75 minutes. So she had to adjust her approach after returning and shoot at a faster rate.
"All this of course gets onto your nerves and fixing a gun takes time. So we lost time. When you are short on time, the pressure increases and you don't have time to relax and take corrective steps," Ronak noted.
Having come so near her target, Manu was naturally downcast.
"She is devastated because she did her best and worked so hard and what happened was not her fault," Ronak said.
The good news for Manu is that she has two more chances.
She'll be taking part in the mixed team event along with Saurabh Chaudhary and she'll also be competing in the women's 25 pistol (individual). Ronak is looking to ensure that she can turn her focus to those events.
Rifle shooters miss out
Divyansh Singh Panwar and Deepak Kumar also had a day to forget.
The duo, competing in men's 10m air rifle, got off to a slow start in the qualification stage and never looked like they'll challenge the top performers. Deepak finished in the 26th spot with 634.7 while Divyansh finished 32nd.
Angad 11th after 3 rounds
Skeet shooter Angad Vir Singh Bajwa missed two targets out of 75 to be placed 11th on countback at the end of the third round in men's skeet qualifications.
Mairaj Ahmad Khan shot 71 and was placed 25th. The remaining two rounds will be held on Monday. The top-six qualify for final.