An irreplaceable loss: Manu Bhaker mourns the death of Jaspal Rana, her friend and coach

On Friday, the world outside the tranquil Dehradun residence felt vastly different from the highly focused ecosystem of the Olympic shooting range. But for Manu Bhaker, the silence was deafening. Standing alongside Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to pay her last respects, the 24-year-old Olympian faced a reality she admitted she was completely unprepared for: the sudden, devastating death of her coach and mentor Jaspal Rana.

Rana, one of India’s most decorated pistol shooters and a legendary high performance coach, he died at the age of 49. The former Asian Games gold medalist suffered heart complications that first surfaced during his return journey from Munich to Delhi after the recently concluded ISSF World Championships.

She took to social media on Saturday to share a poignant montage of photos spanning their journey from 2018 to 2024. The images were accompanied by just two words that summed up the nation’s collective grief: “Irreplaceable loss,” paired with a heartbreaking emoji.

“I still can’t believe it,” Manu told Olympics.com on Friday. “It’s unbelievable news. I’m trying to process it. He wasn’t just my coach, mentor or guide, but a friend who understood me better than most people.” Screengrab by X

For Manu, returning to the firing line means confronting a deep void where a tall, familiar presence once stood.

“Every medal, every success, every moment on the podium will always remind me of him,” she said. “Part of those victories belong to him because he never stopped believing in me even in the most difficult phases of my career. It will never be the same at the range. His voice, his advice, his presence – they were part of my daily life. It hurts me to think that I will not see him there again.”

UNION FORGED IN FIRE

The bond between master and prodigy was forged in the fire of India’s elite junior shooting programme, which Rana led. It was a relationship defined by unyielding discipline at the range and deep empathy. Nevertheless, it was not without setbacks. A highly publicized break-up before the Tokyo Olympics saw them part ways – a period that coincided with Manu’s heartbreaking pistol malfunction in Tokyo, an incident that left her psychologically devastated and contemplating quitting the sport altogether.

The turning point came in 2023. Manu plucked up the courage to call her former coach to ask if they could train together again. Rana, known for his uncompromising attitude to discipline, found himself unable to say no.

“When she approached me, I had no reason to say no,” Rana recalled in an interview with India Today after his historic triumph at the Chateauroux range during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“She had the nerve to call me. She brought it up, I just said yes.”

This reunion resurrected Manu’s career. Rana not only fine-tuned her technique; he rebuilt her psyche and introduced her to the spiritual grounding of the Bhagavad Gita to find balance. He reminded her of her own worth.

“She is not someone who can be easily forgotten,” Rana said proudly after Manu became the first Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal, winning bronze in the 10m air pistol. “I helped her understand that there was nothing she couldn’t achieve.

The shooter, who missed the final in Tokyo, became a balanced, two-time Olympic bronze medalist in Paris under his guidance.

– The end

Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

13 Jun 2026 10:16 IST