Indian shooter Manu Bhaker, who was one of the brightest medal prospects, returned home without an Olympic medal. However, she has vowed to steer clear of all negativity that surrounded her in the run-up to the games and make a stronger comeback.

She was appearing in her maiden Olympics.

She said that there was negativity around her shooting and preparation in the run-up to the Summer Games, owing to a conflict with former coach Jaspal Rana, who insisted that she withdraw from the 25m pistol event.

Manu said she was regularly told to “withdraw” from 25m as she was not “up to the mark” in that event.

“I will continue to shoot in 25m event,” Manu told news agency PTI.

The Youth Olympics gold medallist maintained that the dispute with Rana did not have an impact on her performance but wanting to win medals made it worse.

“Yes, there was negativity as my mother and father were also forced to get involved in this whole issue. Questions like why my mother is with me in Bhopal (for training and trials) and why is my father accompanying would be asked by him. So, there was negativity,” she said.

Among other things, there were technical problems which “were not addressed” by the former coach.

On the brighter side, Manu said she has come back with plenty of learnings from her first appearance at the Olympics.

“I definitely gained a lot of experience. Got lot of warmth from people, from my teammates. It will, hopefully, help me in future to prepare and perform. I am young and have a long career ahead. I tried my best this time,” Manu said.

Manu also said that she will be better prepared to handle tricky situations in the future.

As the country’s shooters put up a disappointing performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, National Rifle Association of India President Raninder Singh promised a revamp in the coaching and support staff.

“Definitely the performances have not been on expected lines and I have spoken of an overhaul of coaching and support staff,” Raninder Singh said.