After Karmakar, Bindra, it's Babuta's turn to deal with pain of finishing fourth

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 topthree for the majority of mens 10m air rifle final here on MondayBy Arjuns own admission fourth is probably the worst position to finish as you have got nothing to show for the tremendous amount of work you put in to prepare for the OlympicsJoydeep Karmakar has gone through what Arjun is experiencing at the moment having finished fourth in the 50m rifle prone at 2012 London OlympicsOne can only hope that Arjun doesnt have to deal with the pain forever like Karmakar and the 25yearold gets another shot at glory in the Summer Games four years laterAbhinav Bindra Indias sole Olympic gold medalwinning shooter too had come fourth in Rio 2016 in the same event where Arjun suffered a sudden heartbreakHaving been there Bindra was among the first ones to console a crestfallen Arjun after the disappointment at the Chateauroux Shooting CentreHe 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 mediaThe look of despair on Arjuns face was understandable as the shooter from Fazilka was in the topthree till the 18th shot of the 24shot final before a 95 on his 20th attempt led to his elimination from the medal raceThe Indian showed very little signs of nerves before faltering at the business end of the final A 101 on the 18th shot saw him slip to fourth from second and he could not bounce back from there on A 99 on the 13th one of his two sub10 shots also did not help his causeAlso ReadParis Olympics 2024 Lakshya Sen wins first match of his Olympic debutChinas world record holder Sheng Lihao dominated the field to end with a second gold medal of the Paris Games The silver went to Swedens Victor Lindgren and Croatias Miran Maricic ended with bronzeIt was not my day It is very hard to deal with fourth It is the worst place to finish It is disheartening said Babuta who believes in luck and that was not on his side in the finalI need to think about where I could have improved There are lot of thoughts going on and I feel I have to fight them with counter thoughts Eventually I have to tell myself that I gave my 100 percentBut if I dont finish in the topthree we can put on luck or any weakness I am not able to spot right now One can be never ready for a fourth place finish lamented Babuta who has multiple medals to his name at the world and Asian levelRifle coach Suma Shirur who has experienced the extreme pressure of an Olympic final back in 2004 was at a loss for words to describe what went wrong with Arjun on MondayI think he shot great He was so consistent It is just heartwrenching One can say it was not meant to be but he will bounce back she saidArjun was working with two mental coaches in the leadup to the Olympics but he did feel the heat in the big final of his debut Games The scores being announced after every shot following the first 10 shots also played on his mind He tried to shut himself out but in the end he was not entirely successfulI try to just be in the zone be with my process My technique my breathing calmness aiming triggering I am always with it If I know the score in between I eliminate that thought and come back to the processI listen to announcements in between and listen to everything But eventually I bring myself back to the zone Every time when I had to pick up a rifle I would remind myself of the process and pick it up Thought of a medal definitely comes at the back of the head he saidBabuta needed a strong 20th shot to remain in the topthree but he could only manage a 95 an indication that pressure indeed impacted an otherwise mature performanceExplaining the thinking at that time the Indian said he just went for the perfect shotI was just aiming for 109 the release felt good I was with my process I was aware that now its very close and I have to do my bestI still dont know why that shot went out because my execution was really good said Babuta who promised to bounce back in the next competitionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever