Every individual has a specific skill in a particular field among a variety of them. Sports sector is one of the field options. Sports play a major role in every individual’s life. It makes a person healthy and fit. Everyone agrees with this quote “Education is incomplete without sports knowledge”. Many people switch to sports as their long term career. Yes of course sports have no border for age groups. Any person of any age can achieve in the sports field. Young age achievements definitely inspire everyone. Such an inspiring personality is young shooter Manu Bhaker. Who is she? What are her achievements? These are the questions that will definitely arise in everyone’s mind. Now here let’s discuss her full biography and achievements.
Biography of Manu Bhaker :
Manu Bhaker is an Indian Olympian who is well talented in airgun shooting. Bhaker is 19 years old, born in Goria village in Jhajjar district, state of Haryana on 18th February 2002. She is a youth Olympic shooter from India. She is the youngest one to win the gold medal at ISSF World Cup. Bhaker was only 16 years old when she won the gold medal for women’s 10 m air pistol event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games appearance.
Education Background :
Coming to her education, she finished schooling in her native village of Goria named Universal Public Senior Secondary School. Her higher education is B.A second year.
Family Background :
Ram Kishan Bhaker, her father works as a chief engineer in a Merchant Navy. Her mother is Sumedha, a school teacher. Her brother’s name is Akhil.
Interesting facts :
Since her childhood, Bhaker was very much fascinated with the field of sports.
Before joining airgun shooting, she joined Virender Sehwag’s cricket coaching school in Jhajjar to mould herself in cricket.
She was greatly inspired by Mary Kom’s Olympic bronze. So she used to learn boxing and Kick – boxing as well.
While playing Volleyball as a warm – up routine for boxing, she gets swollen in her eye. So she quit boxing.
After quitting boxing she chose an alternative and switched to Thang – Ta, a Manipur martial art form.
Soon she left Thang – Ta and joined the judo academy the next day. However, it also did not excite her, so she left judo too.
One day, she visited her school’s shooting range and casually picked up a gun and shot at a straightaway and scored 7.5 points. School coach was astonished by this because it normally takes 6 months to a year to reach such an accurate point.
Her father invested nearly 1.5 lakh rupees to undergo Bhaker a competitive shooting.
Bhaker was coached by Rounak Pandit.
First Success – Baker’s shooting career :
No one cannot forget their first Success in their whole life. Such a thing also happens to Manu Bhaker. Manu’s first success was at international level. At the 2017, Asian Junior Championship, she won a silver medal.
Bhaker Achievements in Shooting :
Manu Bhaker participated in many events as shown below.
1. After the 2017, Asian Junior Championship, in the same year at the National games held at Kerala, Bhaker won nine Gold medals. She defeated Heena Sidhu, who is multiple World Cup medalist by scoring 242.3 points in final and broke Sidhu’s record which is 240.8 points.
2. In 2018 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup(ISSF World Cup) will be held at Guadalajara, Mexico. Bhaker defeated a 2 time champion Mexico’s Alejandra Zavala, whose points is 237.1 in women’s 10 m Air Pistol. Bhaker scored 237.5 and won a gold medal. By winning Gold medal at a young age(16 years) Bhaker is the youngest Indian to win a gold medal in a World Cup event.
3. Next Bhaker won a second gold medal in 10 m Air pistol mixed team event at ISSF World Cup. Bhaker paired up with a fellow countryman named Om Prakash Mitharval. The pair scored 476.1 points and defeated opposite pair Sandra Reitz and Christian Reitz, whose score is 475.2
4. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Bhaker participated in women’s 10 m air pistol qualifying round and also qualified for final level by scoring 388 out of 400 points. In the final round she secured a gold medal and created a new record in the Commonwealth Games by scoring 240.9 points.
5. At the 2018 Asian Games, In the event of 25 m air pistol qualification round, Bhaker created a game’s record by scoring 593 points. Unfortunately she failed to win a medal and placed 6th position in the final level. Eventually, Rahi Sarnobat won Gold medal, who is Baker’s compatriot in this event.
6. At 2018 Youth Olympics, Manu Bhaker shot 236.5 points to stand first in points table in women’s 10 m air pistol event. Manu is the first young shooter and first female sportsperson to grab a gold medal in Youth Olympic Games from India.
7. In February 2019 ISSF World Cup held in Delhi, she won Gold medal in 10 m air pistol mixed team event.
8. In May 2019 after placing 4th position in Munich ISSF World Cup, Bhaker qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the event of 10 m airgun pistol shooting. Unfortunately her pistol jammed while ready to shoot in finals of 25 m airgun pistol shooting.
9. In all four Pistol and Rifle ISSF World Cups in 2019, Bhaker paired up with Saurabh Chaudhry in the 10 m air pistol mixed event and won Gold medal. The same pair made a strong contender for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Other Sports Achievements :
Apart from airgun shooting, Bhaker is well talented in other sports like Huyen langlon, which is the Indian martial art form of Manipur and won medals in this event. She also won medals for tennis, boxing and skating at national games. Until age 14 she participated in all these events and won medals.
By Sri Sivakami R.J
