Tokyo Olympics: Manu Bhaker opens up on her spat with former coach, Jaspal Rana
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Manu Bhaker and coach Jaspal Rana
Manu Bhaker failed to live up to her expectations at Tokyo Olympics, as she missed out on a medal in all three of her events. Moreover, the Indian pistol shooter failed to even qualify for the finals of any event, which has surprised one and all.
However, amidst her poor performance in Tokyo, her dispute with former coach, Jaspal Rana has made the headlines this week. The debate was sparked as soon as Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker failed to qualify for the finals of the Mixed 10m Air Pistol Event.
Jaspal Rana, former coach of Manu Bhaker was relieved of his duties prior to the Tokyo Olympics in a controversial manner. Bhaker gave details on her spat with coach, Jaspal Rana after her run at Tokyo Olympics came to an end.
During the World Cup in New Delhi in March, Jaspal Rana wore a T-shirt showing Manu Bhaker’s message to him, which was imprinted on the back of his white T-shirt. Manu Bhaker revealed that she was not in a good mental space in lead up to the Olympics, which negatively impacted her performance.
“Firstly, I have been off social media for the last 4-5 months and I don’t have major clue of what is happening outside but about the coach thing — I have a lot of negativity in my life and shooting career as well, personal life and my family as well, 3 or 4 months back. It was very negative and depressing also but now I feel positive and happy about everything,” said Manu Bhaker.
“I am very sorry, but he never dumped me. The federation took the decision because I told them and they also realised that everything was going negative with my life. The people whom I trusted the most tried to pull me down, may be because of some personal benefits. I was asked to pull back on my face. There was a lot of negativity in my life,” Manu Bhaker told India Today.
I think I was trying way to hard to win for the country: Manu Bhaker
Manu Bhaker stated that the dismissal of Jaspal Rana as her coach did not impact her performance, as she shot without a coach at the 2018 World Cup. However, she hoped that his coach, Ronak Pandit could have joined her camp a bit earlier.
Manu Bhaker believes that the reason for her poor show in Tokyo, was that she tried too hard to win a medal, and the pressure got the better of her.
“I think Ronak Pandit would have joined me if that was possible earlier and that would have been much better,” said Bhaker.
“I have never sent any message to Jaspal Rana. I told you I have been off social media for some time now. My mother must have written it, she is a very emotional person. She saw he hurt me during the World Cup, he was there but he was not really there. I had no other coach then, whenever I was looking for someone to help me, he was there for somebody but not me. When I told that to he him, he said he did not have the accreditation card, but he was there with somebody else but not me,” she added.
Manu Bhaker clarified that the decision to relieve Jaspal Rana of his coaching duties was taken by the federation, and she had no say in it.
“Few people asked me about the message and I told them that I did not write it. I did not think if it was silly or not because I don’t have to. The thing which I didn’t even do, why will I think about it,” Bhaker said.
“I respected him, I still do but the things he did with me was not at all good. I think the federation and the president helped me pretty well and yes, they took the decision and I think it was a right thing to do,” Bhaker added.
Also Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Sweden’s Daniel Stahl bags gold in men’s discus throw, compatriot Simon Pettersson clinches silver
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Nirmit Mehta
(2425 Articles Published)