Manu Bhaker will compete at the Chateauroux shooting range for the last time, aiming for her third Olympic medal on Saturday.
The walk from the shooting range to the Athletes Village takes exactly 15 minutes. Jaspal Rana, the former world champion and Manu Bhaker’s coach, describes it as a therapeutic walk. During this magical week for her, that’s all it has taken for Manu to clear her mind, refocus on the next task, examine any imperfections, and strategize for the next match.
Once Rana drops her “home,” they don’t discuss shooting.
This zero-fuss approach, according to Rana, is one of the key factors that has brought Manu to the brink of an unprecedented achievement in Indian sport: a hat-trick of Olympic medals at a single Games.
With another sublime qualifying round on Friday, Manu Bhaker has qualified for her third final of the Paris Olympics. She will compete at the Chateauroux shooting range one last time on Saturday, aiming for a feat that, if achieved, would undoubtedly elevate her to the status of one of India’s most successful — if not the most successful — Olympians.
