‘Pain is unbearable’: Shooter Arjun Babuta after joining heartbreak club of Indian legends who finished fourth at Olympics

On best days, the mixed zone at the Olympics can be the most democratic of spaces. On the worst, from an athlete’s point of view, it can also be the most brutal.

Separated by a flimsy barrier, this is the athlete’s first stop when they leave the field of play. Mostly, tears flow in this intimate space where they share their first, raw thoughts about the result.

On Saturday, pistol shooter Sarabjot Singh choked when asked to describe his emotions after missing out on the final because of one poor shot out of 60. Sarabjot returned stronger and now has a chance to redeem himself after he qualified for the mixed team bronze medal match together with Manu Bhaker, who has a chance to become the first Indian athlete to win two medals at the Olympics.

But Arjun Babuta, who on Monday missed an Olympic medal in the 10m air rifle in the cruellest of ways, sounded like a man who would pay a fortune to be anywhere but the cramped room at the shooting ranges in Chateauroux.

He was asked if a fourth-place finish was a scenario he planned for. He looked incredulous. For more than half of his life, the 25-year-old has pursued a solitary goal: an Olympic podium finish.

When he started shooting, hanging a target on a roadside tree outside his house in Jalalabad, a border town in Fazilka, Babuta visualised himself shooting in the Olympics and finishing with a medal around his neck. Finishing fourth isn’t something athletes prepare themselves for. “Fourth is the worst position to be in. The pain is unbearable,” he said, taking long pauses between words. “It’s very hard to deal with.”

In a way, Babuta continued India’s dubious Olympic tradition of fourth-place finishers. The members of this heartbreak club date back earlier generations, including Milkha Singh and PT Usha, to Abhinav Bindra and Aditi Ashok more recently.

Babuta would trade anything to not be a part of this company. In what turned out to be his last shot, Babuta needed a score of 10.3 to remain in medal contention. He aimed for perfection — defined in shooting by a score of 10.9, which is as close to the bullseye as one can get.

When he pulled the trigger, Babuta felt good. “I executed the shot well,” he says. But when the scores flashed on the screens, his jaw dropped: It was just 9.5. From being in silver medal position only a few shots before, Babuta exited in fourth place.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS – Shooting – 10m Air Rifle Men’s Qualification – Chateauroux Shooting Centre, Dols, France – July 28, 2024. Arjun Babuta of India in action. (REUTERS/Amr Alfiky)

He made no bones about how it felt. “Rona dhona toh hai he hai… How I wish I shot that one shot better! Eventually, I have to move on. Today, I’ll indulge my thoughts, whatever they may be. I am fighting with my thoughts right now. Did I give my 100 per cent? I did. So was it luck? Is there a blind spot in my technique? Or is there any other aspect which I don’t know now?”

Among the calmest and most articulate shooters, Babuta was grappling with self-doubts. Bindra, who finished fourth under similar circumstances at the Rio Olympics — his last Games — had a brief word with Babuta — competing in his first — soon after the match.

“He explained to me that the fourth-place finish will only make me stronger. It’s important, he stressed, that I accepted it and moved soon either by laughing over it or any other way… in the future, it’ll make me stronger, he made me understand,” Babuta said. “It’s not the end of the world. I am going to pursue this goal going ahead.”

It was a day of near misses for India at the shooting range. Before Babuta’s heartbreaking loss, the mixed pistol team of Sarabjot and Manu endured a similar pain although they will not have time to dwell on it.

The pistol combine, for the longest time during their qualification round, looked good to be in the top 2, which would have ensured a medal for India and given them a shot at the gold medal during Tuesday’s medal rounds.

Neck in neck with the Serbian duo, Manu shot a final series of 95 — her lowest after scoring 98 in her opening two. Sarabjot had tallied the same total in his opening series. A point here or there, and the story would have been vastly different as Serbia finished with 581 points and India with 580.

Sarabjot and Manu will face the South Korean team of Lee Wonho and Oh Ye Jin in Tuesday’s medal match. Both Lee and Oh won gold medals in their individual rounds, pointing at the huge challenge that stares at the Indian duo, who have personal motivations to exceed expectations.

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For Sarabjot, this is a chance to not return empty-handed from the Games. He could not qualify for the final of the individual event because he shot one inner ten (closer to the bulls-eye) less than his opponent.

Manu, who won a bronze medal on Sunday, has a chance to do something no Indian athlete has ever done: win two medals at the same Games. After becoming the first Indian woman shooter to stand on an Olympic podium, she has a shot at creating further history.

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