‘It’s not the end of the world. I will keep going’

Paris: Arjun Babuta likes to hunt for positive even in disappointments. On the opening day of shooting events, when he and Ramita Jindal finished sixth in the 10m air rifle mixed team qualification to miss out on the final by two spots, Babuta was happy without being satisfied with his own shooting. He’d take that feeling, he said, in the individual event.
How could one possibly find positives from a fourth-place finish at the Olympics, in the sporting pinnacle that arrives every four years and rewards three medals in his sport?
In those raw moments after he finished fourth in the men’s 10m air rifle final in Chateauroux on Monday, it would have seemed impossible for Babuta. Those tears certainly potrayed that.
But in his owns words, speaking to the media after the bubbling disheartened emotions had somewhat made way for more balanced “mixed feelings”, he will have to turn a page on a script that got him so close in his first Olympics.
“It’s definitely very disheartening. Rona dhona toh hai hi hai,” Babuta said. “But eventually, I will have to move on. It’s not the end of the world. I will keep going.”
It’s the mindset with which he brushed aside the near-miss in the mixed team event and turned up afresh for the individual qualification on Sunday. He shot a quality 630.1, filled with high 10s and zero 9s, to finish seventh in the 49-men qualification round.
And with which he entered the biggest final of his career a day later. He began the first two series with 10.7s each, the lowest across those five-shot sequences being 10.2. A 10.8 soon followed, and Babuta found himself just where he needed to be for the medal. Out of the blue came a 9.9 then, which was however immediately compensated by a 10.6 to get him back up in the medal hunt.
He stayed there for the next two elimination series before the 9.5, that one single shot, defined his destiny. Yet, he wasn’t willing to make that shot the overriding memory of these Games.
“I did try my best. I’m proud of it. Whether it be the preparation phase, the qualifications or the final, I put in my 100 per cent,” Babuta said. “Everything I did here was according to what I had planned and worked to do over the last few years. It just didn’t work today. Maybe it’s about those little things that I need to be better at. I’ll look at that when we go ahead.”
Back in India, his personal coach Deepali Deshpande too had bittersweet feelings. She also shares her ward’s assessment of an overall encouraging outing in his first taste of the Olympics.
“Look, he has always been a very fine shooter. And he has proven so at this stage. Looking at his scores and the way he shot across the three events, it was quite good. Of course, finishing fourth is tough to take,” Deepali said.
The 25-year-old from Chandigarh knows a thing or two about overcoming setbacks. Five years ago, with a recurring back injury at its worst, he would collapse on the ground during training unable to stand. It took him a year to mend that back injury and chart his way towards top level shooting again. Last year, as India celebrated its shooting high at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Babuta was out of that squad and also of the World Championships.
“He is someone who is often very hard on himself more than anyone else, thinking maybe there’s something lacking in me,” Deepali said.
He continued to work tirelessly, waiting for his time to come. It did, when he qualified for the Olympics on the back of a solid outing at the Olympic selection trials. “He has been consistent throughout the year, and carried that into the Olympics,” Deepali said. “Having missed those two key events last year, this will make him believe further that he belongs here. You will see a lot of him in the coming years. And this will only make him richer by experience,” the coach said.
Thoughts that Abhinav Bindra, the shooter who knows the feeling of being number one but also of falling short of the podium by one, echoed in his conversation with Babuta after the final in Chateauroux.
“He told me this fourth-place finish will only make me stronger. I will have to accept it, and quickly move on with a smile. And that this will help you in the future,” Babuta said of the chat.
For now, this might all be a bit too much to take in. For now, perhaps that one shot will rankle. For now, it is a fourth-place finish at the Olympics.
“I will take the rest of the day to soak in all the thoughts,” Babuta said.