Agony was writ large on the face of Arjun Babuta after the Indian shooter missed an Olympic medal by a whisker despite being in the top-three for the majority of men's 10m air rifle final on Monday. (Highlights | Full Olympics Coverage | More Sports News)
Paris Olympics Day 3, Top Pic: Arjun Babuta's Heartbreak Sees Him Narrowly Miss Medal
25-year-old Babuta buckled under pressure and finished fourth in the men's 10m air rifle competition
Croatia's Miran Maricic, center, celebrates after securing the third place as India's Arjun Babuta, right, is knocked out of the 10m air rifle men's final. Photo: AP/Manish Swarup
Croatia's Miran Maricic, center, celebrates after securing the third place as India's Arjun Babuta, right, is knocked out of the 10m air rifle men's final. Photo: AP/Manish Swarup
The look of despair on Arjun's face was understandable as the shooter from Fazilka was in the top-three till the 18th shot of the 24-shot final before a 9.5 on his 20th attempt led to his elimination from the medal race.
The Indian showed very little signs of nerves before faltering at the business end of the final. A 10.1 on the 18th shot saw him slip to fourth from second and he could not bounce back from there on.
Abhinav Bindra, India's sole Olympic gold medal-winning shooter, too had come fourth in Rio 2016 in the same event where Arjun suffered a sudden heartbreak.
Having been there, Bindra was among the first ones to console a crestfallen Arjun after the disappointment.
"He told me that fourth place will make me stronger and that it was important to move on. Whether you laugh it off or do something else, he told me to take it with a smile and move," said Babuta, who did well to regain his composure and speak to the travelling Indian media.
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