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Bhaker gave it her all in an excellent final, briefly holding the top spot among the eight shooters, but she was unable to sustain her form and ultimately placed fourth, as per PTI.
Nonetheless, the 22-year-old will return home with her twin bronze-medal feat in women’s 10m air pistol and mixed team 10m air pistol partnering Sarabjot Singh.
After the eighth series of five shots, the amiable Indian tied for third place with Veronika after shooting 28 in the final. Bhaker packed up her gear and left her firing station as Veronika sank four shots into the target to secure third place. She had missed two of her five shots for a total of three points.
With her incredible form, there were a lot of expectations that Bhaker would win a hat-trick of medals. Even though she dropped to sixth place early in the final, she rose to the occasion.
At the conclusion of the competition, Bhaker acknowledged that she was nervous and that she was unable to maintain her composure.
“I got like really nervous about it, but again, I was trying my best to keep calm and to just try to do my best. But that was not enough,” Bhaker said after the event.
Bhaker shot two consecutive “fours” to increase her point total to 10 heading into the elimination round in the second and third series after a disastrous first series in which she missed three of the five targets. Gradually, though, she reduced her faults.
To put it mildly, the elimination round was a complete mess. Bhaker’s chances fluctuated until the seventh series, when she briefly topped the standings (fourth elimination round).
But Jin Yang of South Korea quickly regained the top spot, while Bhaker fell from second place to a tie for third with Veronika on 28 points after three rank-bad misses in the eighth round.
Both markswomen were nervous during the shoot-off; Bhaker had three of her five clear shots go in, while Veronika had four.
The top shooter stated that she will learn a lot from her fourth-place showing and return better in 2028 for the Los Angeles Games.
“It (Olympics) turned out to be very good for me, but well, there’s always a next time so I’m already looking forward to the next one (in LA),” she said.
“I’m glad that I got two medals, but right now, I’m not very… well, fourth place is not a very good place,” said Bhaker with tears in her eyes.
Her placing just outside the medal bracket reminded one of Indian shooters finishing in fourth place at the quadrennial championship.
She joined the likes of Arjun Babuta (10m air rifle, 2024 Paris Olympics), Abhinav Bindra (men’s 10m air rifle, 2016 Rio), and Joydeep Karmakar (men’s 50m rifle prone, 2012 London).
