‘Was Working in Manu’s Interest, Not Against Her’ – Jaspal Rana
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Manu Bhaker and coach Jaspal Rana
Padma Shri awardee and former Asiad and Commonwealth Games champion Jaspal Rana has finally broken his silence on the fiasco between him and ace shooter Manu Bhaker. The controversy bubbled when Indian shooters failed to clinch any medal at the ongoing Tokyo Games despite entering as the ‘pre-tournament favourites’.
World number 2 duo of Manu and Saurabh Chaudhary were amongst the top medal prospects in the 10-metre air pistol individual and mixed team events. However, none of them was able to bring glory to the country.
Adding to this, National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder Singh went on record saying junior pistol coach Jaspal Rana was the ‘only negative factor in the whole thing’. Meanwhile, the 19-year-old Manu too blamed the coach (Rana) for ‘ignoring her’ prior to Tokyo 2020.
In a recent interview with The Quint, Jaspal Rana has asserted that he had been working in favour of the youngster and not against her. The legendary shooter was referring to the moment when he ‘favoured’ another athlete Chinki Yadav to compete in the 25-metre pistol event and wanted Bhaker to focus on the 10m air pistol and 10m mixed events.
“Which shooter in the world competes in three different events?” It was an extra burden on Manu (Bhaker) and even if you pick up scores from last year, Chinki (Yadav) defeated Manu in almost every event in the 25-metre sport pistol. Yes, I supported Chinki because as a coach, I can see the merit. Chinki deserved a place in the Olympic squad in the 25m sport pistol category, but we let her down.
“I can say this with a guarantee that had Manu competed only in the 10m air pistol and 10m mixed teams event at Tokyo, she would have surely brought home a medal. An athlete has to know where to focus and how to play as per their strengths,” Rana was quoted while speaking to The Quint.
“I was okay to go ahead and coach Manu”
Jaspal Rana further went on to say that he was ready to train Manu for the Tokyo Olympic Games despite all the off-arena controversies going on.
“We had a meeting after the World Cup and discussions were held. I was okay to go ahead and coach her, but later I saw that another coach (Ronak Pandit) had already been appointed. Now, it is not my style to barge in when someone else had already been asked to step in. What could I have done?”
While concluding, the 45-year-old hailed the performances of the Indian shooters (especially Saurabh Chaudhary) at the Games. However, he didn’t comment on his coaching journey ahead with the current lot of shooters.
“Manu, Saurabh and others have a great future ahead. They are very young and have great potential. Saurabh reached the finals in Tokyo with fabulous scores. By the time they compete in the next Olympics, they would be able to produce much better performances,” he signed off.
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Sachin Arora
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