Olympics 2024: Rifle shooter Arjun Babuta misses bronze by a whisker

Indian shooter Arjun Babuta missed a medal by a whisker as he finished fourth in the final of the men's 10m air rifle event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Monday.

With his fourth-place finish, Arjun joined a long list of Indian rifle shooters finishing fourth at the Olympic Games with Joydeep Karmakar (London 2012) and Abhinav Bindra (Rio 2016) the other two Indian shooters to meet such a fate. 

Arjun was in medal contention till the final shot but a rather dismal 9.5 in his final attempt forced him to settle for a heartbreaking fourth-place finish at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

Arjun started well in the first series and shot 52.4 to climb up the third spot. He was consistent and accumulated 52.6 in the second series. After the end of the two series, Arjun was still in medal contention at the third spot. 

He improved his tally after that, scrolling himself up to second position behind the world record holder Sheng Lihao with two good shots.

But a 9.9 in the next series meant he would slip to third and the gulf between him and Lihao widened. 

Arjun did well in the next couple of series but fell to fourth position after Victor Lindgren of Sweden rose through the rank. Arjun needed 10.9 to stake a claim on a medal, but, he shot a dismal 9.5 in his final shot, pushing him away from the podium. 

Had Arjun scored 10.2 or 10.3, he would have had a chance at the medal since silver medallist Victor Lindgren could shoot only a poor 10.0.

Lihao Sheng of China clinched the gold medal with an Olympic record and Miran Maricic of Croatia clinched the bronze medal.

Ramita finished 7th in women's 10m air rifle final

Earlier today, 20-year-old shooter Ramita Jindal endured a tough outing as she finished seventh in the women's 10m air rifle final.

Despite making a promising start in the first two series, Ramita fell to the seventh spot after scoring a poor 9.7 in her tenth attempt. She shot 10.4 and 10.5 to avoid the first elimination.

In the next two shots, she could shoot only 10.2 and was tied with Oceanne Muller of France.

In the shoot-off, Ramita shot 10.5 but the French shooter edged her with a 10.8 shot. 

Hyojin Ban of South Korea won the gold after edging out China's Yuting Huang, and Audrey Gogniat of Switzerland won the bronze medal.