Picture Credit: Twitter
Indian ace shooter Manu Bhaker has been in the headlines for some time now. She was taking part in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics but since her campaign has come to an end, she has opened up recent controversies surrounding the athlete. Bhaker opened up about her rift with coach Jaspal Rana. She said that she was in a very bad mental state because of all her issues with coach Rana. The Olympic bound athlete also talked about her Olympics campaign and why it ended on a disappointing note.
Earlier, during the New Delhi World Cup in March this year, Jaspal Rana had paraded the Karani Singh shooting ranges with Manu's alleged personal message to him imprinted on the back of his white T-shirt.
Talking about this particular event, Bhaker said, “I have never sent any message to Jaspal Rana. I told you I have been off social media for some time now. My mother must have written it. She is a very emotional person. She saw he hurt me during the World Cup. He was there but he was not really there. I had no other coach then, whenever I was looking for someone to help me, he was there for somebody but not me. When I told that to him, he said he did not have the accreditation card but he was there with somebody else but not me.” I respected him, I still do but the things he did to me were not at all good,” Bhaker further added.
Either hard luck or maybe we tried too hard to win: Manu Bhaker
Bhaker went on to talk about her disappointing Olympics campaign and said maybe she tried too hard to win. However, she said that she is heading back home with loads of experience. ”Definitely a lot of experience and the warmth of my teammates, how we have been training for the last three to four months. I started well, I tried and gave my best, either hard luck or maybe we tried too hard to win,” said Bhaker to India Today.
The Haryana-born shooter failed to qualify for the finals of 25m Pistol Women. She missed the mark with a small margin. Bhaker shot 292 in the Precision Round and was placed at the 5th spot at the end of the round. She came back in the Rapid Round and shot 290 to miss the mark and ended her campaign at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Earlier, Manu had failed to shine in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event as she had lost seven minutes due to a pistol malfunction.