"You can smell this gutter is here...": Manu Bhaker's father points out poor playing conditions, hectic travel schedule after daughter's medal-less Asian Games campaign

In one of the biggest shockers at the ongoing Asian Games, India's double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker has ended her campaign without a medal to her name in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. Manu competed in women's 25 m pistol and 10 m air pistol individual and team events. However, the Paris Olympics star failed to make an impact. Having achieved a gold medal in the women's 25 m pistol team event, Manu was one of India's biggest medal hopefuls after Olympic success.

Manu's campaign ended on Monday as India finished fifth in the 25 m pistol team women's final. The trio of Esha Singh, Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat finished fifth with a score of 1727-56x. The gold medal went to China (1743-68x), South Korea won the silver (1735-65x), while Chinese Taipei secured the bronze medal (1734-48x).

Speaking to ANI, Manu's father Ram Kishan said that one shot by Rahi, which yielded nothing, changed India's fortunes, bringing them down just when the team was looking strong for a gold medal in the 25 m pistol team event.

"You see, one shot of Rahi, which could have turned things in our favour and given us gold, as we were running for gold really well, that one shot turned everything down. If a shot is not counted, it is zero. That means we slipped 10 points below in the competition," he said.

Further questioning the playing conditions and travel timings, Ram Kishan pointed out the smell of a gutter near the shooting range and the range being quite far away from Nagoya City. Moreover, he pointed out the problems with the bus timings as well.

"You can smell this gutter is here, and athletes are shooting in such an environment. It (shooting range) is very far from (Nagoya City)you can say four to five hours every day spending for what? And top of that, bus timing. The travel time is four to five hours, and bus timings are also different. So Japan should not organise such big events. They need to improve themselves if they are willing to organise that type of event. They should be better organised," he added.

Manu missed out on the individual final in women's 25 m pistol, scoring 579-18x in the qualification round to finish 11th, while Rahi finished 30th with a score of 568-16x.

Before this, Manu had missed out on the 10 m air pistol final, finishing with 181.1 points at the fifth spot during the qualification round for the individual event. Esha Singh finished 16th in qualification with 572 points, while Suruchi Singh placed 26th with 568.

Indian team narrowly missed out on a team medal, ending fourth.

Heading into the Asian Games, Manu was in fine form, securing a bronze medal at the ISSF World Cup 2026 in Hangzhou, where her compatriot Esha Singh struck gold in the women's 25 m pistol event. In the ISSF World Cup 2026 in Munich, she won the silver medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event, alongside Samrat Rana. In the Asian Shooting Championships at home, Manu captured an individual silver medal in women's 25m pistol. (ANI)