Exactly 3 years ago, at the Tokyo shooting range, one by one, India's young shooters were faltering in their campaign and were getting eliminated. Among them was 19-year-old Manu Bhaker, who was participating in 3 events but she failed in all three. There were a lot of expectations from her because she had made her mark in big tournaments before that. Still, she could not repeat this success. Along with Manu, other shooters also failed. After a very poor performance, the reasons for the defeat started being discussed and one name was taken the most and that was Jaspal Rana. The same Jaspal Rana who is currently present with Manu Bhaker as her personal coach in the Paris Olympics and is a witness to Manu's two historic bronze medals.

Behind this success is not only the hard work of these two, but also the story of likes and dislikes and a sensational fight.

Although, factors like hard work, sacrifice, willpower and discipline are important for the success of any athlete. Apart from all this, support of family, help of friends and most importantly – the presence of a good coach is necessary. The story of Manu Bhaker, who created history by winning 2 bronze medals in the Paris Olympics, is also similar, in which Jaspal Rana proved to be an important character.

When the veteran pistol shooter, who was a gold medalist in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, was the national coach of the junior shooting team, he met Manu and it was here that he started training new shooters like Manu, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma and made them contenders for medals in the Olympics.

Success, quarrel and separation

After training with Jaspal Rana, these shooters including Manu won many gold medals in Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and ISSF World Cup.

These shooters started being discussed all over the country and then the expectations of Indian fans also started increasing regarding Tokyo Olympics. It was here that differences started arising and it started regarding competition. Manu was participating in 10 meters, 10 meters mixed team and 25 meters and wanted to continue it further. Rana was against this and he believed that Manu should participate in only 2 events, because it would be difficult for her to handle the burden of 3 different events at such a young age. Here both of them did not agree and during this time 23-year-old shooter Chinki Yadav started getting support from Rana, who was doing well in 25 meters. Rana believed that Chinki would be a better option than Manu in this event.

Manu did not like this and she started feeling that the coach was ignoring her and was not paying much attention to her practice. Then the biggest drama happened during the World Cup in New Delhi, just 4 months before the Tokyo Olympics. Here Manu first expressed her displeasure in front of Rana. Then the next day, as soon as Chinki won the gold medal by defeating Manu in an event, Rana started roaming around the Karni Singh Shooting Range wearing a white T-shirt, in which many messages were printed in big letters.

This shocked everyone and there was a huge uproar over it. Tension increased between Rana and Manu, which also included the family members of the young shooter. Rana also revealed in an interview that the messages printed on the T-shirt were sent to him by Manu's mother, who was questioning his coaching. With the Olympics so close, efforts were made to reconcile between the two, but Manu refused to work with Rana.

Comeback after failure and victory in Paris

The uproar so close to the Tokyo Olympics also put the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) in trouble, which hastily appointed Raunak Pandit as Manu's coach. What happened next in Tokyo was seen by the whole country. After this, NRAI President Raninder Singh also blamed Rana for Manu's performance and mentioned his negative impact. After this, Rana was removed from the junior coaching team. On the other hand, Manu's performance also started declining continuously and she was disappointed in every big event. For the next 2 years, she could win only one bronze medal in any World Cup. Finally, after staying apart for 2 years, Manu again contacted Rana in July 2023 and both of them decided to work together, forgetting their differences. Its effect was visible in a few weeks and in September 2023, Manu won the gold medal in the World Championship. Now, a year later, in Paris, the successful duo has finally achieved the goal they set out to achieve in 2018.