Ordeal of fourth-place finish hits shooter Babuta

PARIS: They call it the ordeal or the curse of the fourth-place finish. One can be on the podium or last but the fourth is called the worst of all. It will torment the athletes throughout their life. Ask any Indian athlete — from the great Milkha Singh, PT Usha, Joydeep Karmakar to Dipa Karmakar — it will draw the same answer.

Arjun Babuta has joined the dreaded list on Monday. You just need to prod him a bit and he would say this was the ‘worst’ moment and no one can prepare for it. All his efforts to qualify for the final and his immaculate shots in the final prior to the last will be forgotten. Living with the curse of the fourth-place finish is perhaps the worst an athlete can endure.

“Fourth hone ka dukh bhi ho raha jyada (I am sad for finishing fourth),” was what Babuta said after the men’s 10m air rifle final. He couldn’t hold back the tears and broke down as well. “It is the worst feeling,” he said “One tends to think if one has given 100 per cent or not. Whether there was any shortcoming. But in the final here I have given everything and I am proud of it. Maybe that luck eluded me,” he said, slipping out of the third position with a 9.6 in the last shot. “There is a fight raging with counter thoughts after the finish. Eventually, I have to tell myself that I have given 100 per cent.” Babuta did not know the reason. He will never know. Not finishing in the top 3 could be attributed to luck as well and that is the best he would want to believe.