Making his Olympics debut, Indian shooter Arjun Babuta came pretty close to bagging the country's second Paris 2024 medal, before finishing fourth in the men's 10m air rifle final on Monday. Babuta shot a total of 208.4, with a 9.5 in response to Croatia's Miran Maricic's 10.7 extinguishing the former's hopes of finishing on the podium. (Highlights | Full Olympics Coverage | More Sports News)
The 25-year-old Babuta started the final with a 10.7 and followed that with a 10.2. A third shot of 10.5 saw him take the fourth spot, while a 10.4 in his fourth attempt lifted him to third place. He finished the first series with a solid 10.6.
He started the second series with a 10.7, followed that with a 10.5 and shot a near-perfect 10.8 in the second shot of the first elimination series.
That effort propelled him into the second place while reducing the deficit between him and world record holder Chinese Sheng Lihao to 0.1 point. However, he could not sustain the form and missed out on the medal.
Babuta's near-miss adds to a list of heartaches that Indians faced in the Olympics -
Indian Men's Football Team (1956, Melbourne):
Indian football legend Neville D'Souza became the first Asian to score a hat-trick at the Olympics as India progressed to the semi-finals with a 4-2 win over hosts Australia in the quarter-final. They played Yugoslavia in the semis and despite Neville giving India a deserved lead, the Yugoslavians mounted a comeback to claim an important victory. India lost their bronze medal match to Bulgaria 0-3 as their footballing sojourn ended in a heartbreak.
Milkha Singh (1960, Rome):
Termed as the 'Flying Sikh', Milkha Singh finished fourth in the 400m athletics final as he missed out on a bronze medal by the narrowest of margins. Milkha had easily passed the heats, and improved his timing in the quarter-final and went a step further in the semis. However, in the final, Milkha went on to face heartbreak as he finished 0.1 seconds behind South Africa's Malcom Spence as the Indian missed out on a medal opportunity.
PT Usha (1984, Los Angeles):
India's PT Usha is another name on the list who missed out on a prized athletics medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Payyoli Express missed out on bronze in the 400m hurdles by 1/100th of a second despite becoming the first India athlete to win an Olympic semi-final. In the final, she clocked 55.42 seconds but narrowly missed out a medal as she finished fourth, behind Romania's Cristina Cojocaru.
Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi (2004, Athens):
India's Men's doubles tennis duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes lost to Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic. In a grueling contest, the Indian pair would lose 7-6 (5), 4-6, 16-14 in a match that lasted four hours.
Joydeep Karmakar (2012, London):
India's Joydeep Karmakar came ever so close to grabbing country's first medal in the 50m rifle prone shooting event, at the 2012 Olympics. While the 10m air rifle bronze medallist Gagan Narang failed to qualify for the final, Karmakar did advance but finished fourth with a score of 699.1, just 1.9 points less that the bronze medal winner's score of 701.0.
Dipa Karmakar (2016, Rio de Janeiro):
Another Olympian who narrowly missed out on a medal is India's first female gymnast to feature in the Games, Dipa Karmakar. The then 22-year old, who was competing with the likes of USA's Simone Biles, began the final with a Tsukahara 720 and scored 14.866 points.
Her second vault, the Produnova earned her 15.266 points that kept her in the second spot. However, Biles and Russia's Maria Paseka turned the tide as Karmakar missed out on a bronze, as she finished behind Switzerland's Giulia Steingruber.
Indian Women's Hockey Team (2020, Tokyo):
The women's hockey team would face heartache at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics despite taking a 2-0 lead in the bronze medal match against Great Britain. Goals from Ellie Rayer (16th minute), Sarah Robertson (24th), Hollie Pearne-Webb (35th) and Grace Balsdon (48th) gave the Brits a memorable 4-3 win over the Indian side as the latter finished fourth.
Aditi Ashok (2020, Tokyo):
Golfer Aditi Ashok came as close as it gets in clinching India's first-ever Olympic golf medal at Tokyo 2020, but fell agonizingly short in the Women’s Golf Individual Strokeplay. Aditi, who came in the contest ranked 200 in the world, finished outside the bronze medal position after 72 holes. It was a despairing result for the young golfer, who had finished Round 3 in the silver medal position.
