Hello Friends,
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While the supreme powers of USA, China, Japan and Australia along with hosts France finished among the top 5 in medals count, countries like Pakistan, Saint Lucia and Dominica won their First medals with Pakistan winning their First ever individual gold medal.
India, a country of 1.45 billion people, managed to almost match their Tokyo Olympics medals tally of 7 as they won 6 medals in Paris Olympics, which is a satisfactory One.
But, it's the number of Forth places finishes which hurts India more than those 6 medals as India finished 6 Fourth place finishes and even another 4 out of those missed 6 would have made India reach their pre Olympics goal of 10 medals in Paris Olympics.
This also indicates, the India is progressing as a medal contender as they could have almost doubled their medal tally as compared to Tokyo Olympics.
Not to forget the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat with a 100 gram overweight which costed India atleast a Silver medal to add to those 6 missed chances.
Ok, whatever done is done, lets look at those 6 Fourth place finishes.
1. Arjun Babuta - Shooting:
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Arjun Babuta, who competed in 10 meter air rifle shooting event, was among the medal contenders as he was in Top 3 until final elimination, but couple of 9+ scores pushed him to Fourth place and missed the medal narrowly.
Arjun is still young and will have his chances if winning a medal in the future Olympics.
2. Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat - Mixed Team Archery:
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Indian Archery created history with mixed team reaching a medal match for the First time, but, that joy was shortened with India finishing Fourth as the team of Dhiraj and Ankita fought hard, but few below par scored by Ankita through out the Bronze medal competition ended their hopes of winning a medal.
India can always take a positive out of these Fourth place finishes as these experiences of competing with World's best will only make them tougher and hungry for better finish in the upcoming Olympics.
3. Manu Bhaker - Shooting:
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Well, if any Indian sportsperson who deserves more appreciation for Paris Olympics show, then it's the India's shooting star Manu Bhaker.
Manu finished agonizingly out of medal contention in Tokyo Olympics as she suffered a rifle malfunction, but, she left all that behind her when she competed in Paris Olympics and brought 2 medals for India.
She could have won 3 medals in the same Olympics, but failed to finish among the medals contention in 25 meter air rifle shooting by finishing Fourth, but she has already promised more for the Los Angeles Olympics and made India proud with those 2 Bronze medals in 10 m air rifle individual and mixed team events.
4. Maheshwari Chauhan and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka - Shooting:
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Anant Jeeth Singh and Maheshwari Chauhan competed in Mixed Skeet event and qualified for the Bronze medal match by finishing Fourth in qualification.
But, in th Bronze medal match they fell short by a point 44-43 to China and missed the medal!!!
So near yet so far for these 2 duo and these are all the events which promises much more from the Los Angeles Olympics for India.
5. Lakshya Sen - Badminton:
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When Lakshya Sen beat #3 seed Chen Chou Tien in Quarterfinals and when he took huge lead in the semifinal against 2 times Olympics champion Victor Axelsen, Indians were hoping for a medal from Lakshya Sen.
But, all of a sudden, Victor Axelsen raised his game and started hitting better and Lakshya started losing focus and was looking tired.
In the end, Lakshya lost the match and also lost in the Bronze medal competition after being leading in both the sets.
Well, may be it's back to back matches which made him tired, or might have lost the concentration and that injury.
Victor Axelsen himself praised Lakshya in the post match questions telling that, Lakshya Sen will be a medal contender in Los Angeles Olympics.
6. Mirabai Chanu:
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When Mirabai won Silver in Tokyo Olympics, it was not so expected One, but when she entered Paris, there were lots of hopes as she was a reining Silver medalist.
But, couple of failed lifts in the final few lifts means, she was always catching up with the Chinese and Romanian ladies and the Thailand lady S Khambao, was a surprise as she had that One KG extra lift which Mirabai failed to lift in her last 2 chances.
I am sure Mirabai will learn her lessons from this and will be a better competitor in the future.
This is all in this blog guys, I would like to write another One about the most missed chance, which is even better than these Fourth place finishes and that is the Wrestler, Vinesh Phogat's missed chance due to 100 gm extra weight on the day of her final bout.
Let's catch up soon.
Thanks and Have a good day :)
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