Huge Margin of Win Leaves Manu Bhaker Pleased

Immediately after letting her pistol do all the talking one more time, Manu Bhaker spoke little but enough to express her pleasure at winning the 10m air pistol gold at the Commonwealth Games with such consummate ease.

The seasoned Heena Sidhu staged a remarkable comeback to bag silver at the Belmont Shooting Centre.

Sixteen-year-old Bhaker's calm demeanour belied her age as she shot a CWG record 240.9 to finish well ahead of her senior teammate Sidhu, who aggregated 234.

Bhaker's 388 in the qualifications was also a games record, while Sidhu tallied 379.

I can say it was the best moment of my life, it was a best moment seeing my country’s flag ahead of every (country), so it was, it was unbelievable when I won this. I was thinking it, a dream come true.

Manu Bhaker

On being asked about the kind of pressure she felt, Manu said, "I did but the pressure, I didn't, you know, let that pressure reach my mind. I just controlled it and then I focused on my next shot."

A dominant Bhaker led throughout the two stages and lived up to the billing.

On her part, Sidhu said, "I feel good. I mean I was facing some problems before going into the finals and the match, but I figured my way around it, and that is what athletes are supposed to do, fight with the challenges."

The former world number one also spoke about Manu Bhaker’s performance.

“I was just telling her (Manu Bhaker) sometime back that she reminds me of myself when I was, when I just started shooting. You know, you have that rawness, you have that energy, you know you have that attitude to go out and take whatever there is to offer, so she’s in a very good place right now, I know because I’ve been in her position and I hope that she takes every match, as a learning experience and this one, she put up a really good score which is, which is very nice compared to her previous score. So that I’m very happy about, it’s not the medal, it’s the score that she shot today. So she’s doing really well,” Sidhu said.