It's often said that finishing fourth in the Olympics is peak agony.
If coming last carries the sting of embarrassment, securing the fourth place inflicts the pain of being so near yet so far, something that can either drive an athlete to future glory or leave them completely crushed.
India's affair with near misses at sport's grandest stage has been a long-standing one, beginning way back in 1956.
Also read: Paris Olympics day 3 LIVE
Here is a look at the instances when Indian athletes came close but ended at just that.
1956, Melbourne
The Indian football team made the semifinals after beating hosts Australia 4-2 in the quarterfinals, with Neville D'Souza becoming the first Asian to score a hat-trick at the Games.
By giving his team the lead, Neville looked like doing an encore in the last-four clash against Yugoslavia. But the Yugoslavians came back strongly in the second half to seal the contest in their favour.
In the bronze medal classification match, India lost to Bulgaria 0-3, drawing to a close an eventful few days which the great P K Banerjee would often reminisce with a hint of understandable anguish.
1960, Rome
The legendary Milkha Singh missed out on a bronze by the narrowest of margins.
The official photo finish of the 400m final at the Olympic Games in Rome on September 06, 1960. It shows Otis Davis of the U.S. (nearer, right) turning his head as Carl Kaufmann of Germany lunges at the tape with his head. This trick, which gave Lee Calhoun of the U.S. the high hurdles title, failed to work for Kaufmann. The judges awarded the race to Davis but gave both athletes the world record smashing time of 44.9s. Malcolm Spence of South Africa is third in 45.5 and India’s Milkha Singh fourth in 45.6. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
Competing in the 400m final and touted as a medal contender, the 'Flying Sikh' fell short by a mere 1/10th of a second after slowing down to steal a glance at his fellow competitors, an error that he would regret for the rest of his life.
This would go down as his worst memory after losing his parents in the aftermath of the partition.
Milkha almost gave up the sport after this loss and it required a lot of persuasion for him to hit the track again and win two gold medals in the 1962 Asian Games.
1980, Moscow
With top hockey nations such as the Netherlands, Australia and Great Britain boycotting the Moscow Games over the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan, the Indian women's hockey team had a great chance to finish on the podium in its first attempt itself.
Indian woman hockey player Rekha Mundapan and Natella Krasnikova (USSR) before a hockey match. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
But the team endured the agony of narrowly missing out on a medal, losing its last match to erstwhile USSR 1-3 to finish behind Zimbabwe, Czechoslovakia and the hosts.
1984, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Olympics brought back memories of Milkha in Rome when PT Usha missed the 400m hurdles bronze by 1/100th of a second, making it the closest-ever miss for an Indian athlete in any competition.
P.T. Usha and other Kerala athletes received a rousing welcome on their return from the Los Angeles Olympics. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
Known as the 'Payyoli Express', she ended fourth behind Romania's Christina Cojocaru, but her heroic effort left a lasting impression and she became a household name.
2004, Athens
After a long gap of 20 years, the curse of the fourth place returned to haunt the Indian contingent when the celebrated duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi missed out on the podium at the Athens Games.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes during the men’s doubles bronze medal tennis match against Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens on August 20, 2004. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
Arguably India's greatest doubles pair in tennis, Paes and Bhupathi missed out on a bronze medal after losing a marathon match to Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 6-4 14-16 to end fourth.
Before that, the Indian pair went into the semifinals as favourites but lost to the German duo of Nicholas Kiefer and Rainer Schuttler in straight sets 2-6 3-6.
At the same Games, Kunjarani Devi finished fourth in women's 48kg weightlifting competition, but she was not really in medal contention.
Disqualified in her final attempt to lift 112.5 kg in the clean and jerk category, Kunjarani finished with a total effort of 190kg, 10kg behind bronze-medallist Thailand's Aree Wiratthaworn.
2012, London
Shooter Joydeep Karmakar experienced the terrible feeling of finishing a place behind the bronze medal winner in this edition.
File photo of Joydeep Karmakar. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
Karmakar had finished seventh in the qualification round of men's 50m rifle prone event, and in the finals, he ended just 1.9 points behind the bronze medal winner.
2016, Rio de Janeiro
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian woman gymnast to compete at the Games. After making the final of the women's vault event, she finished fourth overall with a score of 15.066 and missed the bronze medal by 0.150 points.
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar during the 2016 Olympics.
She introduced the sport to India and gave the message that one doesn't have to be born in the USA or Russia to become an excellent gymnast.
At the same Games, Abhinav Bindra's illustrious career was headed for a fairytale finish but a shooter of even his class was not spared of the curse of the fourth, as he missed the bronze medal by a whisker, eight years after his historic gold medal at the Beijing Games.
2020, Tokyo
A little more than four decades after the 1980 Moscow Games, the members of the Indian women's hockey team once again endured a similar pain at the Tokyo Olympics, missing out on the bronze.
The Indian side punched above its weight triggering an upset to knock three-time Olympic champions Australia to make the semifinal.
Indian women hockey team celebrate their win over Australia during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Oi Hockey Stadium on August 2, 2021 in Tokyo | Photo Credit: Getty Images
In the semifinals, they suffered a 0-1 defeat to Argentina but still had a shot at the bronze. They looked on course to win the elusive medal as Rani Rampal and Co. took a 3-2 lead against Great Britain.
But Britain scored twice to go up 4-3 and clinch the medal, leaving the Indian team in tears.
At the same Games, golfer Aditi Ashok also experienced the agony of missing out on a historic podium finish.
Ranked 200th in the world, the 26-year-old matched the best golfers in the world shot for shot. But, she eventually fell short after coming agonisingly close and finished fourth.
2024, Paris
It was another heartbreak for India in the shooting event as Arjun Babuta finished fourth in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the Paris Olympics 2024 in Paris on July 29.
World record holder China’s Lihao Sheng won the gold while world champion Sweden’s Victor Lindgren settled for silver. Croatia’s Miran Maricic won the bronze.
Arjun Babuta gestures after finishing fourth in the 10m air rifle men’s final at the 2024 Summer Olympics on July 29, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP
Arjun Babuta sponsored by OGQ has won five golds, two silvers and three bronze so far in his careeer. Babuta has won two gold medals at ISSF World Cup in 2022 in 10m air rifle and 10m air rifle team event. He added a silver in 2024 at the ISSF World Cup. He won his first gold medal in 2016 at the ISSF Junior World Cup.
Indian archers Dhiraj and Ankita
It was that proverbial moment of ‘so near yet so far.’
At the magnificent setting of the 17th century Invalides arena, with the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Palais and the Army Museum standing as witness, Indian archers made a bit of history by making it to the mixed team bronze medal match, but falling short of cornering Olympic glory in Paris 2024.
Like several much-talked about fourth-place finish moments, which fills one in pride without a medal and includes legends such as Milkha Singh, P.T. Usha and Dipa Karmakar, the one here involving Ankita Bhakat and B. Dhiraj, hailing from Kolkata and Vijayawada respectively, has the power to give Indian archery a big morale-boosting push.
The Indian duo overcame a bit of distraction due to the absence of Korean coach Baek Woong Ki to shoot consistently well and won two rounds before losing to powerhouse Korea and then a more experienced USA side in the bronze medal duel.
Manu Bhaker
It is the third consecutive heartbreak for India at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
India’s double bronze medallist Manu Bhaker narrowly missed out on the opportunity to add another Olympic medal to her collection by finishing 4th in the 25m pistol event.
India’s Manu Bhaker reacts after getting eliminated from the 25m pistol women’s final at the 2024 Summer Olympics on August 3, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP
The 22-year-old, who has already made history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two bronze medals in one edition of the quadrennial showpiece, was edged out by Hungary’s Veronika Major in a shoot-off as both of them were tied for third place after the seventh round of the final.
Bhaker started slow in the first couple of rounds and then had a good run to sit in second place after six rounds. But after dropping to third, she took on Major in the shoot-off and could only manage two out of five shots on target. Major got three.
Lakshya Sen
Serving 3-1 up in the opening game of his Olympic bronze medal encounter against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, Lakshya Sen attempted a high serve against his Malaysian opponent. Sen lifted the shuttle high trying to force a high clear from his backtracking opponent. Lee took a look at the trajectory of the projectile and simply left the shuttle as it sailed over the backline of the court.
Service errors are fleeting in men’s badminton. Lakshya had made one just four points into his match against Lee. Just a day before he had made another service error while three game points up against Viktor Axelsen. The Dane would make the most of his opportunity, save the remainder of the game points and end up winning it. He’d win the match, reach the Olympic finals and end up defending his title from Tokyo.
While Lakshya’s error had come at a critical time against Axelsen, the one against Lee had come very early on. There was enough time to recover. But the fact that he made one at all, suggested there was something in what Axelsen had said a day before about competing in the Olympics.
Maheshwari-Naruka pair
The Indian shooting duo of Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka missed the bronze medal by a whisker in the skeet mixed team event, finishing fourth at the Paris Olympics on Monday (August 5, 2024).
Maheshwari and Naruka shot 43 to finish fourth behind China’s Yiting Jiang and Jianlin Lyu (44) in the contest for the bronze medal.
Earlier, the Indians finished fourth in the qualification after both teams were tied on 146 at the end of the three-round, 150-shot process, forcing a shoot-off.
In the qualification, Maheshwari shone with 50/50 in her final two rounds while Naruka notched scores of 25, 23 and 24 in the three rounds.
Published - July 19, 2024 02:56 pm IST
