On Saturday, Manu Bhaker, who won two medals at the Paris Olympics, said she didn’t feel any pressure to win a third medal after just missing out on the bronze in the women’s 25-metre pistol event.
She concluded Olympics as the first Indian ever to have bagged two medals in a single edition after independence.
“I feel more motivated and skilled”, said Manu Bhaker. She had 28 points in the shoot-off.
“Did I? No, I do not think so because when we finished our last games my coach was like ‘You know what? History is history. Now live in present and then later on you can sit down and think about how everything went’” Manu Bhaker told PTI in Chateauroux mixed zone.
“My coach Jaspal sir does a great job keeping me in the now. There wasn’t such pressure of winning a third medal but surely I wanted to give my best shot and try to make it look like a great match…,” added Bhaker with pauses between each sentence.
“The fourth position definitely does not feel amazing but there is always next time and certainly it is going to be there for me.”
“I’ve got two medals now so lots of motivation for next time; I’m gonna work my ass off really hard so that maybe next times when someone gets to see an Indian flag they will say “ahh this girl came back better than before” she stated.
The fourth place finish left several areas for improvement according to her while preparing for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“It was up and down throughout the competition. (The) beginning was not so good but finally it was catchup until now it just goes on…”she said “okay just do your best, do your best keep trying keep trying each shot”
“But then again, towards the end probably because of nerves or whatnot- who knows cause at least I tried but it just wasn’t my day- and sadly for us it was a fourth (place) finish but yet again, four is better than not making it to finals” she stated.
“I am definitely looking forward to overcoming this in the next cycle and let’s see how it goes for all of us,” Manu Bhaker said.
“I have a very strict schedule. Every single day I do the same things at the same times. I don’t know about others but even during games, before games after them, all the time I like to exercise. I regularly go to gym,” she clarified.
Earlier on she hoped that people would not be “disappointed or anything” if she fails to grab the third medal as explained by Bhaker herself in her previous interviews
“This one time I said it off the record…”
“No regrets because I gave my best and there were some things that I needed to look into; so when we come back next time we will give our best,” she added.
Though it might have been better, I am grateful that I could get two medals for India; however, there is always room for improvement.
I am also learning how to, what to say and what not to say, but whatever I say comes from my heart and so allow me to tell all listeners that I really work hard and will keep working hard as long as possible in as many Olympics as possible,” she said.
According to Manu Bhaker, her confidence during the Paris Games was the difference between her difficult days after Tokyo Olympics and then.
“One thing different, that I think was like very prominent with my performances also and with my behaviour also was confidence,” she said.
“In Tokyo, I wasn’t confident at all; in fact everything kind of scared me. But this time round, I feel much more confident and much more mature in terms of experience, also (a) major, major part of that would go to my coach because of him only I feel this confident.”
“He makes training so difficult for me that matches are like okay, just deliver what you have learnt in training. That is one major change and definitely experience teaches every person a lot in life,” she said.
