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Indian shooter Manu Bhaker is elated to secure a place in the Paris Olympics 2024. She emphasized her initial reactions after finishing fifth in the women’s 25m pistol event at the Asian Shooting Championships in October 2023 in Changwon, the Republic of Korea.
The Asian Shooting Championships 2023 was a qualifying event for the quadrennial event and a total of 24 Olympic quotas were on offer. The top two finishers (one per country) in each of the 12 Olympic shooting events secured a spot for their national teams.
Manu stated that she had thoughts of quitting the sport after finishing fifth in the event. However, she was informed by her coach that she secured the quota as one country can only win a maximum of two Paris quotas in any particular shooting event.
“I thought I would probably leave shooting because it was too many matches, too many competitions, and too many heartbreaks. So I was like fourth-fifth. Firstly I didn't know that I had won the quota place. I thought I was fifth and I was eliminated on the fifth rank.
"So, I was a little upset, but my coach told me that I won the quota place and I was so happy. I forgot everything else and I was like Paris I am coming,” Manu Bhaker told ISSF Official on X.
How exactly did the qualification work in Manu Bhaker’s favor?
Interestingly, Manu Bhaker had topped the qualification round with a score of 591 to secure a spot in the final. However, she could only manage a score of 24 in the medal round, placing her behind the People’s Republic of China’s Liu Rui (37), Iran’s Rostamiyan Haniyeh (36), and China’s Zhao Nan (32), and Feng Sixuan (27).
Although Manu Bhaker finished outside the top two, she still clinched the quota spot. This is because a country can only secure a maximum of two Paris 2024 quotas in any specific shooting event.
Since China had already secured one in the women’s 25m pistol event through Chen Yan at the Shooting World Championships 2022 in Cairo, this campaign’s Gold medallist Liu Rui filled up China’s allotment by securing the second spot. This ruled out both Zhao Nan and Feng Sixuan from securing a quota place in the Summer Games.
Iran's Rostamiyan Haniyeh had already secured a Paris 2024 quota from the Cairo World Championships 2022. Therefore, the second quota on offer in the qualifying campaign automatically got to Manu Bhaker even though she finished in the fifth spot.
Notably, India have already secured 19 quotas in shooting for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Paris 2024 will see India’s largest-ever shooting contingent, moving past the 15 from Tokyo Olympics.
