Manu Bhaker shatters world record by topping women’s 25m pistol qualification

Olympian Manu Bhaker has dominated the women’s 25m pistol qualification by scoring a world record with good six points at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, New Delhi on Saturday. The selection process for the Indian pistol and rifle team for the Paris Olympics 2024 began on Friday.

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Manu Bhaker topped the qualification by scoring 4,4,5,5,5,5,4,5,5 and 5 in the 10 series of five rapid-fire shots. When Esha Singh was first eliminated on 23 after the seventh series, Manu was already on 32, six ahead of Rhythm Sangwan and Abhidnya, who were tied at that stage.

Earlier on Friday, Esha Singh topped the qualification in women’s 25-metre sports pistol with a score of 585 in the first Olympic selection trials. She shot 291 in the precision stage and 294 in the rapid-fire section.

Esha will still lead the Olympic Selection Trial at the end of it because of her score. Manu Bhaker will be just behind her in second with Simranpreet, Abhidnya and Rhythm completing the order.

On the other hand, in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol event, Anish Bhanwala won the Olympics Selection (OST) Trials. 

Anish, who narrowly missed qualifying for Tokyo Olympics, finished with 33 hits, a clear six to stamp his class in the men’s RFP ahead of Vijayveer Sidhu, who was second. While Adarsh Singh took the third spot with 23 hits, Bhavesh Shekhawat finished fourth with 18 after topping the qualifications. Ankur Goel was first to exit with 10 hits to his name on the stage.

The rifle and pistol shooters will have a series of four Olympic trials, and the best three scores will be considered for their selection, along with points for the Olympic quota and placings in the finals.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) will add two bonus points to the scores of shooters who win Olympic quota places for the country in the 25m pistol and 50m rifle events, while one bonus point will be added to the trial scores of 10m air pistol and rifle shooters.

The top two shooters with the best scores among the five contenders will qualify for Paris.

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The men's and women's 50m rifle three-position trials 'one and two' will be completed on April 24 and 26 respectively, while the 10m air rifle and air pistol men's and women's trials will be held on April 25 and 27 respectively.