new delhi: Double Olympics medallist Manu Bhaker has taken the failure to live up to her exalted standards in the ISSF World Championships on her chin and acknowledged that she “cannot win everyday” while lauding the performance of her compatriots.
That Bhaker couldn’t feature among the 13 Indian medallists in the just-concluded tournament has come as a bit of a surprise to many in the shooting fraternity.
“I was aiming (for medals) at the World Championships. My performance was good, scored decently, couldn’t make it to the podium. My teammate Esha Singh did... in sports you cannot win everyday, sometimes you lose as well,” Bhaker said during an event on Tuesday.
“For me it is like India should win a medal and it shouldn’t be about me or someone else winning it. As long as India is winning any medal, I am cheering for it, be it any sports,” she added.
The 23-year-old pistol ace was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of ASMITA (Achieving Sports Milestone by Inspiring Women) social media handle. After the Olympics high in Paris, Bhaker hasn’t quite set the stage ablaze this year and the bronze medal in the women’s 10m air pistol competition of the Asian Shooting Championship in August remains one of her highlights in 2025.
Speaking about specially-abled athletes, Bhaker said they are an inspiration to everyone. The shooters won India’s first medals at the ongoing Tokyo Deaflympics with Dhanush Srikanth defending his men’s 10m air rifle title with a new world record of 252.2 and Mohammad Vania winning silver in the same event.