Manu Bhaker won the gold medal in women’s 10m Air Pistol final at the Belmont Shooting Centre. (Source: AP)
At just 16 years of age, Haryana’s Manu Bhakar has already made a huge name for herself after her superlative performance at the Gold Coast on Sunday. Participating in her maiden Commonwealth Games, Bhaker clinched the gold medal for India after emerging on top in the women’s 10m air pistol at the Belmont Shooting Centre. The teenager displayed maturity beyond her age as she shot a CWG record 240.9. Not only this, Bhaker’s 388 in the qualifications was also a Games record. While Bhaker bagged the yellow metal, seasoned Heena Sidhu had to settle for a silver.
Reflecting on her performance, Bhaker said, “I am very happy… it is my first Commonwealth Games and I won with a qualification record also. The gap between me and the second competitor, that was a huge margin. So it was pleasure winning this medal for India and I am very, very happy.”
After winning the silver, Sidhu congratulated her teammate and said, “I feel good. I mean I was facing some problems before going into the finals and the match, but I figured my way around it, and that is what athletes are supposed to do, fight with the challenges.”
Sidhu, who was at one stage languishing in the sixth spot, gave insights on a few niggles which has been a problem for some time.
“I couldn’t feel the muscles properly and that is why I lost in the first 5, 50 is about the minimum I would have gotten. If I had paid more attention to the gripping I would have given her (Bhaker) more competition,” Sidhu said.
“I had this injury, although I don’t know if you could call it an injury because it was not really a fall and I did not get hurt or anything, but slowly last year I had my index finger, the trigger finger, it used to tremble. I did a lot of MRIs and physiotherapy, so we understood there was some nerve involvement, and we worked on it,” she added.
“For the past month or so I’ve been having tingling sensations and now it’s pins and needles. It flared up a lot in the last week so I had my physiotherapists come in,” she concluded by saying.