Manu to juggle exams and shooting

New Delhi, May 16

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Inside her hotel room in Croatian capital Zagreb, India’s Olympics medal hope Manu Bhaker is juggling shooting-related activities and studies.

A day before the Tokyo-bound Indian shooting contingent hits the range for its first training session in Croatia, Bhaker’s pistol will give way to a pen and the shooting gear to her study materials, as she logs in for her BA fourth semester exam.

A student of political science in the Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Bhaker’s exams start on May 18. The European Championships in Osijek, in which the Indian team will compete as a guest invitee, begin two days later, on May 20. The continental tournament and Bhaker’s exams will run almost concurrently but she is relieved that the dates of her events are not clashing with the exams. “I will manage both, as I have done in the past. At least I don’t have competition on days I have my papers, so it’s manageable,” Bhaker said.

Her father, Ramkishan Bhaker, said, “She is very serious about her studies but if there is a clash between her competition and exams, then she chooses sports.”

The 19-year-old Manu Bhaker has been selected for three events in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8. “This is the year of the Olympics and I am fully focussed on how to give my best and do my country proud,” Bhaker, a gold medallist at the Youth Olympics, ISSF World Cup and Commonwealth Games, said.

After the continental event, the Indian shooters will compete in the ISSF World Cup, slated to be held in Osijek from June 22 to July 3. — PTI