Curse of the fourth, India's near misses at Olympic Games Paris 2024

The Paris Olympics is almost at an end and the Indian contingent has all but sealed the country's medal tally at six, one short of the seven medals secured at the Tokyo Olympics. 

While the joy of winning a medal was imminent in the victors, agony prevailed on the faces of the ones who missed out, especially the ones who came so close, yet so far. 

As many as eight Indians finished in fourth place at the Paris Olympics across six events and missed out on what could have been a dream come true. 

Arjun Babuta: Men's 10m air rifle shooting

In his debut Olympics, Arjun Babuta came very close to clinching the bronze medal in the men's 10m air rifle shooting but missed out by a whisker to Croatia's Miran Maricic.

The Indian scored 208.4 points, whereas the Croatian beat him out by 1.4 points, finishing with 209.8, and secured the bronze medal. 

Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat: Mixed team archery

Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat created history at the Paris Olympics by becoming the first Indians to reach the semi-finals in an archery event at the Olympics.

After losing out to the South Koreans in the semis, the Indian duo faced the USA for the bronze medal match and lost the match 6-2, thereby settling for a fourth-placed finish at the Paris Olympics. 

Manu Bhaker: Women's 25m air pistol

Manu Bhaker is the star of the Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics. After a heartbreaking Tokyo Olympics, where she missed out on a shot at the medal due to a pistol malfunction, Manu won two bronze medals this time, one in the women's 10m air pistol and the other in the 10m air pistol mixed team. 

She became the first Indian woman to win two medals in one Olympics and the first Indian since independence to achieve the feat. But she too, had a fourth-place finish at the women's 25m air pistol event. 

Despite being in contention for a gold and silver medal, a wayward series towards the end cost her the podium finish, losing out to Veronika Major of Hungary in the shoot-off. 

Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan: Mixed team skeet shooting

The skeet shooting duo of Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan lost to China's Jiang Yiting and Lyu Jianlin in the bronze medal match of the mixed team skeet shooting event. 

It was a very closely fought match with the Chinese edging out 44-43 and winning the bronze. 

Lakshya Sen: Men's singles badminton

Lakshya Sen's form was a cause of concern before the Paris Olympics. But the 22-year-old proved everyone wrong at the big event, performing brilliantly.

He powered through the group stages and defeated H.S Prannoy in the round of 16 and also defeated Chou Tien-Chen in the quarter-finals. But a resolute Viktor Axelsen put an end to Lakshya's victory run in the semis and in the ensuing bronze medal game, Lakshya faltered. 

Facing Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, Lakshya won the first game and was looking comfortable, and was poised to take bronze. But to everyone's surprise, Lee Zii made a strong comeback and won the next two games, handing Lakshya a fourth-place finish. 

Mirabai Chanu: Women's 49kg weightlifting

Mirabai Chanu missed the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics by just one kilo, with her 199kg total getting outperformed by Surodchana Khambao of Thailand, who had a 200kg total. 

In the snatch, Mirabai had a best of 88kg, which is equal to her personal best and national record. In the clean and jerk, she had a 111kg best lift. Surodchana's extra kilo in the total came thanks to a 112kg clean and jerk, having equaled Mirabai's numbers in the snatch.