2024 in review — Manu Bhaker leading the charge in Indian shooting’s revival

In 2024, the Year of the Dragon, Manu Bhaker almost slew one.

A mere 0.1 separated internet sensation Yeji Kim and the Indian shooting star on the tally when the latter was forced to settle for a bronze medal during the 10m air pistol final of the Paris Olympics. The point difference, when scaled on the scoring ring, is about 1 mm. To put matters into perspective, that’s approximately the diameter of the tip of the graphite lead of a sharp pencil!

If Yeji were to get the raw deal, maybe Manu, in imperious form on the said day, would have gone on to put the other Korean and eventual winner Oh Ye Jin to the sword as well. Indeed, she would have had her work cut out should the events have unfolded in the said manner, given Oh ended up registering an Olympic record score of 243.2. But a little wishful thinking never hurts.

Despite having pocketed India’s first shooting medal in 12 years since Vijay Kumar’s silver in the 25m rapid fire pistol in London, Manu, in all probability, would have thought about the same when she decided to retire for that night. The 22-year-old was yet to participate in two more events.

Only one more podium finish would have made her independent India’s first athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympic Games. She would also become only the second Indian female athlete to bag multiple Olympic medals after badminton ace P. V. Sindhu.

Manu sped past these milestones when help arrived in the shape of another 22-year-old in Sarabjot Singh only a day later, on July 29. 

In the bronze medal match of the 10m air pistol mixed team event, Manu went up against a very familiar face — that of Oh!

Accompanying the OR holder was Asian Games silver medallist Lee Wonho. Although Sarabjot dropped 11 points in his three series, a 291 from Manu, coupled with a slew of 9s from Lee and Oh, saw South Korea sink to a 16-10 defeat and take a bite of the humble pie. This victory saw Sarabjot heave a sigh of relief, with the shooter having missed out on a place in the 10m air pistol final three days earlier after he shot one ‘x’ (inner-10) less than the eighth-placed Robin Walter of Germany.

Going purely by count and not the colour of medals, India had already equalled its London 2012 showing. But Swapnil Kusale’s chef d’oeuvre in smallbore ensured India went above and beyond.

Although the 50m 3 positions rifle shooter from Maharashtra somehow managed to squeeze through to the final with a seventh-place finish during qualifying, he consistently fired at the 10-ring in ‘Standing’ later to ensure another medal — a bronze. 

So close yet so far

India, which had failed to open its account in Tokyo 2020, finished 14th on the shooting medal tally. China defended the top spot, finishing with 10 medals (five gold, two silver, and three bronze). Meanwhile, South Korea (three gold, three silver) displaced the United States of America (one gold, three silver, one bronze) from the second spot.

There were other highlights from the Olympic campaign that suggest that a true watershed moment for Indian shooting may not be far. In fact, it could be a little over three years and around 9,000 km away (the distance between Paris and Los Angeles).

Manu herself came painstakingly close to another bronze medal in the 25m sports pistol. When the curtains fell on ‘Rapid’ in the qualification round, only Veronika Major of Hungary had a better score than Manu. And it was Major again, who trumped the Indian in a shoot-off for bronze in the final by registering an extra hit (10.2-plus shot).

Arjun Babuta also missed out on a podium finish after shooting a rare 9.5 in his final attempt on target. Croatia’s Miran Maricic, who eventually won the bronze medal, was only 0.2 ahead of Babuta until the deciding shot was fired.

Another fourth-place finish came back to haunt the Indian contingent, albeit this time in the shotgun arena. In the skeet mixed team bronze medal match, the Chinese duo of Jiang Yiting and Lyu Jianlin pipped Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan 44-43, with Jianlin registering a perfect series!

The party continues in Paris…

The Olympic success was reflected in India’s Paralympic campaign as well, where Avani Lekhara became the first Indian woman to win two gold medals at the Games, defending her title in the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 shooting event with a world record score. Mona Agarwal won a bronze in the same discipline.

After Manish Narwal added a silver medal to the tally in men’s 10m air pistol SH1, Rubina Francis capped off the show with a bronze medal in women’s air pistol SH1.

The birth of a league

Immediately after the conclusion of the Summer Games, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the body that governs shooting in India, elected Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo as its president at the General Body meeting held at the Constitution Club in New Delhi in September.

One of Kalikesh’s first steps was to announce the launch of a franchise league under the moniker Shooting League of India (SLI). The proposal has received approval from the Governing Body, and the inaugural edition is likely to take place in March 2025. But even as shooting gears up to receive a massive boost in India, thanks to the SLI, its fortunes globally took a severe beating after its exclusion from the multi-discipline rosters of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Youth Olympics in Dakar.

In 2025

Although the sport’s exclusion from the CWG and the Youth Olympics would have the shooting fraternity largely disappointed, the onset of a new Olympic cycle only means there’s plenty to look forward to in 2025.

Most shooters would be eager to work towards the World Championships in October–November in Malakasa (shotgun) and Cairo (rifle, pistol). The Asian Championship between August 16 and 30 in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, is another event that would have them keenly interested. 

The Paris Olympians would return to action at the selection trials around mid-February. These trials would decide one’s eligibility for making the national team ahead of the season’s first World Cups in rifle, pistol, and shotgun in Buenos Aires and Lima in April.

India is also set to host a Junior World Cup this year. The ISSF, in a written communication, has mentioned two possible windows in the calendar to slot the competition between September and early November.

Look out for

Parth Mane: Even as the country celebrates a new high in shooting at the Olympics, a 16-year-old continues to bloom far away from the media spotlight. 

For Parth Mane, it didn’t matter that he was going up against the likes of Paris 2024 silver medallist Victor Lindgren and reigning junior Asian champion Huang Liwanlin in the 24-shot air rifle final of the Junior World Championship in September. For that moment in Mane’s ‘mind palace,’ all he found was himself and the 10 rings located 10 metres up ahead. Eventually, he shot 250.7 to take home his first major international title.

Parth’s compatriots Ajay Malik and Abhinav Shaw finished fifth and seventh, respectively, to help the India men’s team finish top and claim a second gold. 

Mane also opened his Junior World Cup account with a silver medal in Granada in 2024. At the Asian Championships in Jakarta, he won a bronze medal in the junior section of the 10m air rifle.