The heartbreak in shooting continued for India after Arjun Babuta came within sniffing distance of an Olympic medal only to let the nerves get the better of him, finishing 4th in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle event.
The emotions were visible on Babuta’s face when he knew that his final shot wasn’t enough to keep him in contention for a spot on the podium.
China’s 19-year-old Sheng Lihao, who spent the majority of the time on the top clinched the gold medal with 252.2 points. Sweden’s Victor Lindgren secured the second spot with 251.4 points, and a visibly emotional Croatia shooter Miran Maricic settled for the third spot with 230.0 points.
Babuta got off to a flying start by shooting 10.7 to kick off his final campaign. He fell to fourth after registering 10.2 in his second shot. His combined total was 20.9 out of 22 possible points.
Babuta went on to firmly maintain the fourth spot after hitting 10.5 in his third shot. Babuta leapfrogged Sweden’s Victor Lingreden by hitting 10.4 in his fourth shot.
China’s Lihao Sheng continued to showcase his remarkable preciseness and lead the charts by scoring 53.4/55 after five shots. However, Babuta slipped to fourth after five shots, scoring 52.4/55.
In the second series, Babuta started to reap rewards for his consistency and moved to the second spot after firing two shots. He continued to fire above 10.5 and put up a score of 84 after eight shots.
At the end of the second series, Babuta slipped to the third spot with a score of 105/110. China’s young shooter, Sheng, continued to lead the pack with his near-flawless accuracy.
The end of the second series marked the beginning of the elimination round. Babuta started the second stage with a 10.6 and moved to the second spot.
The Indian shooter raised hopes of gold after he managed to trail by 0.1 points behind the first-placed China’s Lihao Sheng.
With a shot of 9.9, Babuta’s streak of hitting the ten-point mark ended. He fell one full point behind China’s Sheng.
Sweden’s Victor Lindgren got rewarded for his consistency, and he eventually managed to sneak past Babuta for the silver medal spot.
Babuta retaliated and made up ground with a 10.7 shot which allowed him to retake the second spot. The pressure got to Babuta, and he settled for the fourth spot after shooting a 9.5.
Earlier, Babuta earned a ticket to the final round by finishing seventh in the qualification round on Sunday. The 25-year-old from Chandigarh shot a series of 105.7, 104.9, 105.5, 105.4, 104.0, and 104.6, achieving a total score of 630.1 points to make the cut for the final.
The loss on Monday follows a narrow miss for Babuta in the mixed team event with partner Ramita Jindal on Saturday, where the duo finished sixth in the qualification round, just missing out on a final berth.
