India shooter Manu Bhaker to switch off from social media till end of Tokyo Olympics

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Osijek, June 29: Teen shooting sensation Manu Bhaker on Tuesday (June 29) decided to switch off from social media till the end of the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her preparation and performance in the Games, starting July 23.

The 19-year-old Bhaker is currently training in Croatia along with other members of the Olympic-bound Indian shooting team, which is taking part in the ISSF World Cup here. The shooters will directly fly to Tokyo before the Games.

"As I enter the last leg of preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, I am now going off social media till the end of the Olympics," she tweeted. "I will need your love, blessings n support to bring glory to our country. See you all soon!"

In the ongoing ISSF World Cup, Bhaker had teamed up with Saurabh Chaudhary to win the 10m air pistol mixed team silver. Bhaker and Chaudhary won their sixth 10M Air Pistol Mixed Team ISSF World Cup medal on the trot, only this time their first silver after a run of five gold medals. They lost to the Russian pair of Vitalina Batsarashkina and Artem Chernousov 12-16 in the gold medal match.

The Haryana shooter, however, finished seventh in the 25m pistol event won by another Olympic-bound shooter Rahi Sarnobat. This was Manu's second individual final of the competition. In the 25m pistol event, both Indian shooters were in fact in their elements through the day, as they had earlier shot a brilliant rapid-fire qualifying round to book their final spots in second and third positions.

Rahi had ended day one of qualifying in third place after the precision round on Sunday, while Manu was lying ninth. On Monday morning, both shot sensational rapid-fire rounds of 296/300 to storm into the finals in a field that included all the Rio Olympic medallists in the event. Rahi totalled 591 to Manu's 588 as Bulgarian Antoaneta Kostadinova topped with 593.

Earlier in March, Bhaker had won a silver in 10m air pistol individual event in the New Delhi World Cup and the 10M air pistol mixed team gold, along with Chaudhary.