Young shooter Arjun Babuta came agonizingly close to securing India's second medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics as the 25-year-old finished fourth in the Men's 10m Air Rifle final with a score of 208.4 here on Monday.
The Chandigarh-born shooter was in the hunt for a podium position throughout the final and headed into the last two elimination series tied with Croatia's Miran Maricic at the score of 167.8 points while Swedish shooter Victor Lindgren was tailing them by just 0.1 points.
In his second last attempt, Babuta shot a modest 10.1 which saw him fall out of the top three and into fourth place. His final shot of 9.5 resulted in him bowing out of the competition after nearly securing a medal for India.
China's Lihao Sheng won the gold medal after breaking the Olympic Record with a mighty impressive score of 252.2.
The opening few days at the Paris Olympics have seen Indian shooters heavily impress on the global stage.
Earlier on Monday, Ramita Jindal finished seventh in the final of the Women's 10m Air Rifle competition.
India's 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team of Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh qualified for the bronze medal match after finishing third in the qualification stage with 580-20x points. The duo will play against the Korean pair of Oh Ye-Jin and Lee Won-Ho on Tuesday.
(With inputs from IANS)
