Paris Olympics 2024: Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh, two athletes playing for India in the Paris Olympics, won their second medal by winning bronze in the 10m mixed team air pistol event at the Chateauroux Shooting Center on Tuesday. This is India’s second shooting medal at the ongoing Paris Games, earlier Manu had won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol event.
With this bronze medal, Manu Bhaker became the first athlete from independent India to win two medals in the same edition of the Olympics. Manu and Sarabjot finished third in the 10m air pistol mixed team qualification with a total of 580 points and 20 perfect shots. Bhaker shot 10.7 in the second set, followed by Sarabjot’s 10.2. Oh scored 9.9 Bhaker’s 10.7 and Sarabjot’s 10.0 gave India 20.7 points, helping them win the set 20.7-20.5. In the next set, Bhaker scored a brilliant 10.5 points, helping India win the set 20.1-19.5, while Sarbjot had a score of 9.6.
O Ye Jin took this as a personal insult and scored a ridiculous 10.8 points, taking South Korea’s score to 20.7 and that was enough to win the set 20.6-20.2. At this point, India’s score was 8-4.
The sets were then switched: India won 20.0 – 19.7 after Bhaker hit the first shot, South Korea won the set 20.7 – 18.5. The Indian team was still in control with a 10-6 lead.
Bhaker-Sarabjot then played two brilliant sets, scoring 20.5 and 20.8 points while South Korea scored 20.4 and 19.4 points to make the score 14-6, but Oh once again put the team ahead by scoring two 10.8 points and winning the next two series 19.8-19.3 and 21.0-20.8 to make the score 14-8.
As the nerves grew, India took a timeout and scored 19.6 points, which was enough to overcome Korea’s 18.5 points and thus won the bronze medal match by defeating the Korean pair of Joo Lee and Wonho Lee 16-8, who finished fourth with 579 points and 18 perfect shots. The Turkish team of Sevval İlayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikek, who equalled the qualification Olympic record with 582 points, will face Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic and Damir Misek for the gold medal.
“I feel really proud and I am very grateful,” Manu said after the historic feat. “Thank you so much for all your blessings and love. We can only control what is in our hands. I had spoken to my father about this before coming here and decided that we should keep fighting till the last shot.” “It feels great.
The game was tough, but we are happy that we could do it. There was a lot of pressure, but the crowd was great,” said Sarabjot.
They had finished third in qualifying on Monday with a combined score of 580. This is Sarabjot’s first Olympic medal. Meanwhile, Manu is now the first Indian to win multiple medals at a single Olympic Games. She opened India’s account at the 2024 Paris Olympics with a bronze medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event.
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