India's Manu Bhaker finished fourth in the women's 25m pistol, agonizingly close to adding to her collection of two bronze medals from the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The final was a tense affair, with Bhaker starting slow and rising through the ranks before an elimination via shoot-off just before the medal places were decided. Veronika Major of Hungary won bronze, with France's Camille Jedrzejewski winning silver while South Korea's Jiin Yang won gold.
In real danger of elimination early, Bhaker hit five (out of five) and four to climb rapidly up the rankings. In an arena that was filled with loud techno-pop music, Bhaker remained calm under the most intense pressure. Until the eighth series, she was well in control, but three misses pulled her into a shootoff with Hungarian great (and world record holder) Major.
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She started the shootoff well, but Major came back and Bhaker faded. After the match, Bhaker said, "I got really nervous about it, but I was trying to remain calm and do my best."
Asked about the grandness of her achievement, becoming only the third Indian to win two individual medals, she said, "If you put it that way, I'm happy I got the medals."
"But," she said, "right now, I'm not... well, fourth place is not a very good place."
In the 25m pistol final, hits above 10.2 are counted as a hit (one) and below are misses (zero). There are three series of five first followed by elimination rounds of five shots per round. Bhaker hit two in her first series, making her joint sixth at that point. France's Camille Jedrzejewski, Iran's Haniyeh Rostamiyan and Vietnam's Thu Vinh Trinh with four were joint lead. In her second series of five, Bhaker hit four: a strong comeback that brought her back up to fourth. South Korea's Jiin Yang lead at the point with 8.
In her third series, Bhaker maintained her consistency, hitting a four again to go joint second with four other shooters. This was a round that seemed to sharply highlight the fine margins that separate shooters at this elite level. Meanwhile, Yang retained the lead with 13.
In the next series, the first of the elimination rounds, USA's Katelyn Morgan was eliminated with a score of 5. Bhaker struggled, too, hitting a three and dropping her to joint sixth with Trinh, putting her in direct danger of elimination.
With elimination staring her in the face, Bhaker hit a sensational round, hitting all five. This drove her all the way up to third, with a score of 18. Trinh was eliminated at this stage with a score of 16. Yang and Hungarian great Veronika Major were 1-2 with 20 and 19.
In the next round, Manu Bhaker brought out more of her epic shooting, smashing a four that saw her rise to second, with 22, just two behind Yang. Rostamiyan was eliminated. Manu then started the next round with two hits, driving her level top before a miss created jitters amongst the Indians in the audience. Which was soon dispelled by another two hits. That four kept her second but closed the gap to Yang to one point. China's Zhao Nan was eliminated.
In the final round of eliminations before a medal is decided, all four shooters missed their first shot and hit their second. Major hit a three and Bhaker hit a two, which meant there was a shootoff to remain in the hunt for medals as they were both on 28.
In the shootoff, both hit their first, Bhaker hit her second but Major missed, Bhaker missed her third and Major hit, Bhaker missed her fourth and fifth and Major hit both... that saw Bhaker finish fourth, eliminated at the most heartbreaking stage of them all.
Major was then eliminated in the next series, giving her bronze. The next series started with Jedrzejewski and Yang tied on 33, before both hit four to take it to 37, a shootoff for gold now needed.
Yang then went properly clutch at the end, hitting four to Jedrzejewski's one and that meant the South Korean took gold, the Frenchwoman silver.
Meanwhile, Bhaker comes back from Paris with a tremendous return, the first Indian to win multiple medals at an Olympic Games.