Manu Bhaker has won multiple golds in 10m Air pistol shooting events and is currently ranked number 2 in the world, but unfortunately during the 10m air pistol shooting event on 25th July at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics a gun malfunction cost her 20 minutes of shooting time and causing her to fail to qualify.
In a very rare instance the cocking lever of the gun Manu was using broke causing her to drop out of the running. Before the lever broke however she was all set to quality for the finals as she was ranked in the top 8 and her score was 154 out of 160 after 16 shots.
The manufacturer of the gun which Manu was using has come out and stated that they were there to provide assistance but no one from the Indian team approached them.
Francesco Repich from the Swiss gun manufacturing company Morini, which is used by several Indian athletes including Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary stated that if they had been approached for help the issue would have been sorted quickly.
Repich also stated that the Indian team refused sighting shots when the judge asked if they wanted to check the pistol after repair.
He (judge) told us the following: 'The (Indian) coaches said the pistol had slightly loosened the charge screw. He followed the athlete and the coach into the room next door where he saw the coach screw the lever back and replace the electronics without knowing why. Time taken about 10 minutes. In his opinion, more qualified people would have taken less (time). In the end he (judge) asked the coach if sighting shots were needed and the answer was no!'" wrote Repich on Facebook on Monday
Repich stated that they arrived at Tokyo on 22nd July and was present at the venue when Manu had her glitch and was available for repair and assistance but wasn't approached by the Indian team.
Repich even posted a picture of his enclosure in the shooting range on Sunday morning on Facebook with the caption "Morini technical repair place at the Tokyo olympic games. For people that don't know where we are, we are at the left of weapon deposit office!"
Indian pistol coach, Ronak Pandit had issued a statement after the event saying, "The cocking lever of the weapon broke after 16 shots. We had to get it changed. She (Manu) had 44 shots remaining in 56 mins and then when we started it was 44 shots in 38mins. To change the lever, the grip and the trigger circuit has to be removed. They were put back but then the circuit would not work so we had to change that again. She was placed fourth when all this happened and by the time she resumed, others were in their fourth series while she was still on her second. No extra time is allowed according to the rules and the pressure at the end was too much. We are proud of the way she shot."
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)