Heartbreak for Manu Bhaker as she misses out on grand treble at Paris Olympics

The sensational Manu Bhaker's dream of a grand treble went up in smoke after she lost the tie-shoot for bronze medal to Hungarian shooter Veronika Major by the narrowest of margins in the women's 25m sports pistol event at the Olympic Games on Saturday.

In a high-quality final, Bhaker gave it her all and was placed No.1 among eight shooters for a brief period, but she could not maintain her consistency and eventually finished. Nonetheless, the 22-year-old will return home with her twin bronze-medal feat in women's 10m air pistol and mixed team 10m air pistol, where she partnered with Sarabjot Singh.

The affable Indian shot 28 in the final, to be tied at third place along with Veronika after the eighth series of five shots. The Indian missed two of the five shots to aggregate three points, while Veronika drilled in four bullets into the target to clinch the third spot, leaving Bhaker to pack up her kit and leave her firing station.

Expectations were really high from Bhaker to bring home a hat-trick of medals given her awe-inspiring form. She stood up to the challenge even after slipping to sixth position early in the final. The first series was a disaster in which Bhaker missed three out of five targets, but gradually she cut down on the errors and bounced back in the second and third series, shooing two consecutive 'fours' to take her points tally to 10 going into the elimination round.

The elimination round was topsy-turvy to say the least. Bhaker's chances waxed and waned until she took the top spot for a brief period in the seventh series (fourth elimination round). However, South Korea's Jin Yang wrested back the top spot immediately, even as Bhaker slipped in ranks with three misses in the eighth round, which saw her slump from second spot to joint third with Veronika, on 28 points.

The shoot-off was nerve-jangling for both the markswomen, and Bhaker had three clear shots out of five on target, while Veronika had four. Bhaker's finish just outside the medal bracket once again brought to the fore the saga of fourth-place finishes for Indian shooters in the quadrennial showpiece.

She joined the likes of Joydeep Karmakar (men's 50m rifle prone, 2012 London), Abhinav Bindra (men's 10m air rifle, 2016 Rio) and Arjun Babuta (10m air rifle, 2024 Paris Olympics).

Post event, Bhaker admitted she was a bit nervous during the 25m sports pistol final, where she finished fourth.

"I got like really nervous about it, but again, I was trying my best to keep calm and to just try to do my best. But that was not enough," Manu said after the event.

"It (Olympics) turned out to be very good for me, but well, there's always a next time so I'm already looking forward to the next one," she said.

"I'm glad that I got two medals, but right now, I'm not very... well, fourth place is not a very good place," said Manu with tears in her eyes. Manu said she wasn't distracted by all the expectations around her and had completely switched off.

"Honestly, I've been off the social media and I have not been checking my phone, so I don't know what's going on. But I just know that I was trying my best and I was trying to deliver a good performance," she said.

"In most of the events I was able to (give a good performance), and in this one, I was not able to do as good. The moment my match was over, I was like, 'okay, the next time'," said Manu, already setting her sights on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

"There has been a lot of hard work going on backstage. Like I'm here -- what you see -- but like so many people have been working hard so that I can make it to the podium and so that India can win a medal," she said.

"I am so happy that my entire team was there for me to support me throughout my journey," Manu added.