Finishing outside the medal stand and ending up in a gloomy fourth place is the most disappointing outcome at major sporting events such as the Olympics. In previous Summer Olympics, India has had such heartbreaking experiences including near misses by legends like this one from Milkhar Singh and P.T Usha.
The ongoing Paris Olympics were no different; Team India has suffered close shaves that have left fans and sports enthusiasts puzzled despite winning three bronze medals so far.
India’s ambitions of achieving a double digit medal target were dashed by their defeat in Paris Olympics. Over time it becomes harder to beat Tokyo’s seven-medal count.
Take a look at some of India’s heart-wrenching results at the Paris Olympics so far from the shooting range to badminton courts:
Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat, India
Archery Mixed Team Event: Heartbreaking Bronze Medal Playoff
In archery, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat put up a good performance. They overcame Indonesia (5-1) in the round of 16 and Spain (5-3) in quarter-finals to qualify for semis. However, they lost 2-6 against South Korea in semis, which pushed them into bronze-medal playoffs with United States.
Barkat and Bomadewala lost to Casey Kaufhold and Brady Ellison of America during an exciting bronze bout at Paris Olympic games where India fell short of its dream of another podium finish.
Despite scoring three 10s in the first set, Barkat stumbled out with an opening 7 cost his side dearly as India fell behind 0-2. Barkat started with only 7 points again in second set; although Bomadewala scored ten points and nine points respectively then Allison’s two double tens sealed victory for American team.
The Indian team bounced back briefly on third set. Bhakat & Bonmadewala totalled 38 whilst US scored 34. In the meantime, they were declared winners.
In the fourth set that mattered, Barkat shot eight and Bonmadewala had nine and ten points but United States sealed it with thirty seven points to win six-two, leaving India out of medal contention.
Arjun Babuta
Men’s 10m Air Rifle: Arjun Babutapainful longing
Arjun Babuta reached the finals after finishing seventh in the qualification round with 630.1 points. However, his Olympic dreams ended in heartbreak when he came fourth in men’s 10m air rifle final just missing out on a medal.
For example, a 9.5 on his twentieth shot put him totally out of contention for a medal as he was ranked fifth at that point.
Shooter fell from second to fourth when he put up a score of 10.1 during an 18th shot from which there was no recovery whatsoever for him. Although Babuta needed to put up a strong performance on his twentieth attempt in order to remain within top three; unfortunately it ended up at 9.5 as this turned out to be his only two shots below ten during the final after shooting a 9.9 on thirteenth one, hence succumbing to pressure.
Manu Bhaker
Women’s 25 meter pistol: no treble Manu Barker
Manu Bhaker missed her chance at Triple Crown when she narrowly lost against Veronika Major from Hungary for bronze at women’s twenty-five-meter sporting pistol competition.
Beginning slowly, Buck had missed three of five shots in the first series but would scored four consecutive runs in the second and third matches. After leading the pack at some point during this knockout stage, Buck fell to position three after notching up 3 points in the eighth round. He shared third place with Veronica on 28 points. Buck was positioned ahead of Veronica with a score line of three goals to four in case of each.
Despite that miss, Barker secured two bronze medals in women’s 10m air pistol and mixed team 10m air pistol (with Sarabjot Singh).
Laksha Sen
Badminton: Laksha SenCollapse in bronze medal match
Lakshya Sen maintained her dream of winning a medal by becoming the first Indian male badminton player to reach the semi-finals. In Paris, he played well, but two consecutive collapses left him empty-handed.
Secondly, Mori entered the quarter finals with an undefeated record and ranked first in the group. He then secured his place in last eight with 21-12, 21-6 victory over HS Prannoy of India.
He won Taipei’s Zhou Tiancheng in three games during the quarters and made it to the semis. His opponent was defending champion Axelsen. However, the young Dane wasted a three-point lead in game one and led 7-0 in game two before going down to a 20-22, 14-21 defeat to become finalist in just under an hour. Axelsen.
His bronze-medal hopes were also dash by Malaysia’s Li Zijia after a gruelling match that lasted for one hour eleven minutes. Sen began strongly taking the first game 21-13, but Li came back to win at 21-16 and 21-11 later on.
Maheshwari Chauhan (right) and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka battling for bronze during their match
Mixed Team Skeet: India shooter nearly gets third miss
India won bronze with Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka competing against the Chinese pair on opportunity of increasing medals numbers at skeet mixed team event The Indian pair scored 146 points in qualifying round thus finishing fourth.
However, Chauhan and Naruka lost out narrowly on a bronze medal when they were defeat by China’s Jiang Yiting and Lu Jianlin in final competition. The Indian team scored forty-three points; missing China’s score by only one point which was forty-four. Almost got beaten this time around that thrilling contest nearly cost India this Olympics .
