Indian shooting ace Manu Bhaker, on Sunday, failed to qualify for the 10m Air Pistol medal event after she finished 12th in the event with an overall total score of 575 in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. After an opening of 98, she followed it up with 95, 94 and a 95 as the young shooter dropped out of the top-10.

However, a “circuit malfunction” in her pistol cost the Indian shooting ace dearly. Due to this, she lost more than five minutes and most probably disturbed her rhythm as she could not consolidate on an impressive start.

When the technical snag hit she was shooting in the second series and was left to shoot 44 shots in 55 minutes. She even for a brief moment ranked 8 but soon crashed out of the top 10.

By technical snag, it means that the pistol’s cocking lever broke down.

After she sorted the issue, Manu had to complete the remaining number of shots in 36 minutes. This is considered an improbable task in any level of competition.

But it wasn’t the end for her. Once she came back, the 19-year-old lost more than 5 minutes as she had to check the repaired gun in the sighter (practice).

“Normally, it doesn’t take more than a few seconds and we couldn’t have claimed more time, so I had to tell Manu to start shooting as we had already lost a lot of time,” pistol coach Ronak Pandit told PTI.

Manu, along with her coach and a member of the jury, had to go to a designated area to get her pistol checked and repaired, as no repairing is allowed near the range because of safety concerns.

“55 minutes were remaining for 44 shots when the malfunction took place and when she came back after getting it sorted (the cocking lever was replaced), which we got in a record time, she was left to shoot 44 shots in 36 minutes,” Ronak, a former India shooter, said.

Needless to say, the unfortunate incident has left the young shooter “heartbroken”.

Her father Ramkishan Bhaker as well as a National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) official, had said that the electronic trigger of Manu’s pistol had “suffered a circuit malfunction” in the middle of the second series of the qualification.

Manu is currently ranked second in the world and is also the Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympics gold medallist.