Manu excels again, restarts from where she left off at Paris Games

Saurabh also eyes a comeback into the national team after a gap of three years

- Avishek Roy

NEW DELHI: Manu Bhaker loves to be in the thick of action. After a long break of six months, the double Olympic medallist is back in the shooting range and reigniting the fire in her for a fresh Olympic cycle.

A look at her performances in the two selection trials suggests that Manu has started from where she left off at the Paris range during the Olympics. She shot impressively in qualification of both 10m air pistol and 25m pistol events, making the cut for finals on all four occasions.

In the rankings, Manu finished in second place in the 10m air pistol - the discipline that fetched her individual and mixed team bronze medals in Paris - and topped the rankings in the 25m sports pistol in which she narrowly missed a third Olympic medal.

The two World Cups in April (Buenos Aires and Lima) will start her international season, with the World Championships scheduled later in the year. Manu doesn't want to think too far ahead though.

"It was a long break. I missed the National Championships and National Games. I had the selection trials in my mind so I thought I will start here. I trained accordingly and everything has been fine as it was in July (in Olympics)," Manu told Hindustan Times.