Arjun Babuta competes in the 10m air rifle men’s final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. (AP Photo)
On the first of October this year, the dim lights of the rifle range at the Karni Singh Shooting range lit up. A lone figure walked towards his lane, took out his rifle and made some adjustments to his weapon. It had been close to two months since he had touched that rifle. That extended period of distance was needed for Arjun Babuta after he finished in the dreaded fourth position at the Olympics.
Eight shots was all Arjun Babuta could muster in his return to a shooting range after missing out on a medal by the barest of margins at the Chateauroux Shooting Range. The few hits fuelling the memory of how things went down for him in one of best debut campaigns of an Indian Olympic shooter – best by the standards of most but not him. It was around the eighth shot where the tears started to flow and the futility of a traumatic training session made him stop and walk away.
“I never imagined that this 4th (place) thing would happen, how much it would affect me, with what intensity it would affect me. I only realised what happened when they announced the new Olympic champion,” Babuta told The Indian Express. Just a couple of weeks after that first failed training session, the 25-year-old will be in action at the year-ending ISSF World Cup in New Delhi starting Monday.
Before he had left for Paris, Babuta had given one last look at his cupboard, where a poster he had made was hanging. The words ‘Paris Olympics gold medallist’ was written on it. “I tore it as soon as it came back and threw it in the dustbin. Now that place is empty,” Babuta said.
The Indian 10m Air Rifle shooter prefers to live in his world of methodical precision. Not knowing what would come in his first-ever Olympics, he looked to his peers and his guides to help before Paris.
Divyansh Singh Panwar, who was a part of India’s failed Olympic shooting team at the Tokyo Olympics advised him to follow his routine and ignore unsolicited advice. Manu Bhaker’s gun malfunction at Tokyo taught Babuta to prepare a second rifle and make sure it would be ready if the worst happens. Babuta tailored his sleep pattern and altered his workout regimen to the exact dimensions of how they must be in Paris.
The one thing he didn’t prepare for – and no athlete really does – was a fourth place.
Before he had left for Paris, Babuta had given one last look at his cupboard, where a poster he had made was hanging. The words ‘Paris Olympics gold medallist’ was written on it. (Photo: @Media_SAI/Twitter)
The one thing that is clear to him now is the mindset he was in. By his own admission, Babuta says that that day in Paris was the best he has ever felt at a shooting range. His first-ever Olympic final may have been nerve-wracking but soon that gave way to the familiarity of his craft. That was until that final shot, where he needed a high score but instead had to settle for a look of disbelief as the scoreboard twitched and 9.5 blinked back.
“I called that shot to be a 10.7 or 10.8. You can see my jaw drop on the replays when I saw it was a 9.5. I don’t know the reason for that shot being a 9.5, neither does anyone else know, nor is it being figured out in the video,” Babuta said. For now he has settled on an explanation: “So many things happen because of destiny.”
New beginnings
A new Olympic cycle means that the Indian shooter can now try tweaks to his technique and new customisations to his rifles. Abhinav Bindra told him right after the competition ended in Paris: “Cry today as much as you want and then laugh about it in the days and years to come.’
It’s easier said than done for Babuta who says that as much as he tries to live up to that nugget from India’s first-ever individual gold-medallist, sometimes the best words can only gain true meaning at the right time. The World Cup in India is a start in that direction, especially in order to truly move past that Olympic heartbreak. Babuta says that rather than promising a hard-working 2.0 version of himself, he wants to continue his recovery by promising a version that enjoys the sport.
The ISSF World Cup in New Delhi will also see Babuta go up against some familiar faces. Chief among them will be Sheng Lihao. At the end in Paris, it was Lihao, who had his hands raised in the air after a gold medal winning effort, one better than the silver he won four years earlier in Tokyo. In New Delhi, where some of the best shooters will reconvene once again, Babuta believes he will trust his process and newer goals will manifest themselves.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 13-10-2024 at 19:19 IST
