Manu Bhaker at the Asian Games 2026
Women’s 10m air pistol: fifth
Manu Bhaker qualified third for the final on 23 September with 579 points and 20 inner tens. In the final she scored 181.1 and was eliminated in fifth place. South Korea’s Choo Gaeun won gold with an Asian and Games record of 246.3, ahead of China’s Shen Yiyao (241.3) and Jiang Ranxin (221.6).
In the team event, Bhaker, Esha Singh and Suruchi Singh scored 1719, the same total as Vietnam, but Vietnam took bronze on inner tens, 46 to 44. China won the team gold and South Korea the silver.
Women’s 25m pistol: out in qualifying
Bhaker scored 579 in qualifying and finished 11th, outside the eight places for the final. Her teammate Esha Singh, the world number one, reached the final and won silver after five consecutive shoot-offs with China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan, who took gold. India also missed the podium in the 25m pistol team event.
For India’s results in every sport, see India at Asian Games 2026 and the full Asian Games 2026 medal tally.
Manu Bhaker’s career highlights
- 2018, ISSF World Cup, Guadalajara: two golds at 16, the youngest Indian to win a World Cup gold
- 2018, Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast: gold, women’s 10m air pistol
- 2018, Youth Olympic Games, Buenos Aires: gold, girls’ 10m air pistol
- 2021, Tokyo Olympics: no medal after a pistol malfunction cost her time in qualifying
- 2023, Asian Games, Hangzhou: gold, women’s 25m pistol team
- 2024, Paris Olympics: bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol and the 10m air pistol mixed team with Sarabjot Singh; fourth in the 25m pistol
- 2026, Asian Games, Aichi-Nagoya: fifth in the 10m air pistol
Early career
Bhaker grew up in Goria, a village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, and has said she was 14 when she started shooting. Within two years she had won two golds at the 2018 ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, and the same year she added Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympic golds in the 10m air pistol.
Paris 2024: a record for India
Bhaker won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol, India’s first medal of the Paris Games and the country’s first Olympic shooting medal by a woman. Two days later she added a second bronze in the 10m air pistol mixed team with Sarabjot Singh, a feat no Indian had achieved at a single Games since independence. She narrowly missed a third medal, finishing fourth in the 25m pistol final.
The results came three years after Tokyo, where an equipment malfunction in qualifying left her without a medal. She reunited with coach Jaspal Rana before Paris.
What next for Manu Bhaker
The Asian Games were Bhaker’s first major multi-sport event since Paris, and her first without a medal since Tokyo. At 24, she has time on her side: the next Olympics are in Los Angeles in 2028.
Updated 8 October 2026. Sources: Olympics.com, Morung Express (PTI), Gulf News, Deccan Chronicle and ISSF results.
