Just days before the former pistol ace’s death at 49, Manu and Jaspal were together on a flight, on the range, planning, training and discussing shooting. Think of it.
New Delhi: “Irreparable damage,” was how Manu Bhaker reacted to the sudden demise of her coach Jaspal Rana three months ago.
There, the Paris Olympics pistol medallist partnered Samrat Rana to claim silver in the mixed team event after a final against China’s Yao Qianxun and Hu Kai, who sealed gold by a mere 0.3 points. Despite new faces coming up and challenging the established lot in domestic competition, Manu has been a constant presence on the senior team since 2018. In the last week of May, they travelled to Munich together. A tense, draining final on the last day of the championships came with Jaspal sitting behind Manu in the coach’s corner. It was the last time they would be on the range together. Manu did not know how to process the loss. Jaspal had left a big void. Jaspal was not just a coach to her, but also a mentor and friend. He played a key role in Manu’s unprecedented success in the French capital that saw her win two bronze medals. Life moves on, and so did Manu, getting back to the comforting sound of pellets. The heart may still be empty, the mind chaotic, but she quickly realigned herself into training and competition with the Asian Games fast approaching. The ISSF World Cup in Hangzhou in July last week was a final opportunity to test herself before heading to Aichi-Nagoya. The steely resolve was back. Manu was on the podium, winning a World Cup bronze in 25m pistol. It is the kind of peaking an elite shooter prepares for ahead of a major competition. There was no Jaspal to share the moment, dissect her game and mentality at the competition. But she was on the right track. After a talk with high-performance director Pierre Beauchamp, Manu chose Serbian coach Jelena Arunovic as her new coach. It is a new combination and will take time to develop. “She doesn’t give up no matter whatever the situation around her. Every time the chips were down, she has fought back and come out stronger and better. “When you feel that everything is against her, she will come out with the strongest of performances. That is the resilience, killer instinct and fighting spirit she displays. Manu came back home. After Tokyo, when she was in search of the spark, the firepower that could ignite her mind as results were not coming as expected, the only person she could think of as her coach was Jaspal, who had guided her since her teenaged days as the national junior team coach. “At this level, when you have established yourself, it’s not much about the technique, which you keep refining, but about hard work, discipline and determination.
The shooting range would not feel the same again without him, she said. “Mentally, she’s very strong,” says Ronak Pandit, coach and high-performance manager for the Indian pistol team who has worked with the 24-year-old in the past. I have seen her transition since she was a kid, over the last eight-nine years,” Pandit told HT. Samaresh Jung, the former international and now coach with the pistol team, says a strong desire to win sets her apart. She is the strongest of the present lot and that’s why she is consistent,” says Jung.
