Arjun Babuta's era will begin in 2025, says a confident coach Deepali Deshpande

New Delhi: It took Deepali Deshpande an hour to really emerge from the shock of Arjun Babuta finishing fourth in the 10m air rifle event at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Sitting thousands of miles away, she could feel the pain of one of her most diligent pupils after he came so close to winning an Olympic medal in his maiden appearance, only to succumb to intense pressure and finish fourth.

Having coached him from the time he came into the national squad as a 16-year-old, what struck Deepali was a shooter with a "really bad posture" but with an eye for "precision and perfection".

Deepali, who was a part of the junior programme in 2015 along with Jaspal Rana, is confident that he will overcome the setback soon and his journey towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be fuelled by the turn of events at the Chateauroux shooting range near Paris.

Babuta was looking good for a silver medal at one stage before nerves got the better of him in one of the strongest fields ever witnessed in the event at the Olympics.

Deepali, herself a former international rifle shooter with an Asian Games team silver at the 2002 edition in Busan, has seen Babuta mature into a shooter par excellence over the last nine years, and knows that his eye for detail, and going into a different plane when he is in competitive mode, are something which put him in the league of the elite.

"He passed through a very bad phase when he suffered a back injury that put paid to his hopes of making it to the Tokyo Olympics three years back. He fell twice at the range while shooting as his legs used to go numb," said Deepali, who continued to have faith in his abilities even when he was recommended complete bed rest.

"The Covid pandemic gave him time to rest and recover, but every now and then he would call and request if I (Babuta) could start training, and every time I had to tell him, he needed to get fit first," she added.

"Today was a tough day for me as well and I threw my phone on seeing him slip from second to fourth in the finals. I know how hard I have worked with him during his junior days and helped him through the injury phase," she said.

"He is one of those who can shoot 10.8s consistently in the finals, and I am sure his era will start in 2025," said Deepali.

Coming from a middle-class background, where his family initially resided in the Jalalabad region on the Indo-Pakistan border, he moved to Chandigarh where his father, Neeraj, worked with the Indian Railways.

Babuta's love for the shooting sport made his father seek time with Olympic gold-medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra.

That meeting spawned the desire to be like the champion some day and that has been Babuta's driving force all these years.

Babuta acknowledged on Monday how big an impression Bindra had on him.

"I spoke to him yesterday as well as today. He had come to the Games village and shared his views. He told me to stay in the present. We always try to be in the present, but when a senior like Bindra says that, it has a different impact," said Babuta in a virtual interaction facilitated by Sports Authority of India on Monday.

"He told me, 'I was also fourth (in 2016 Rio) and I can understand your feelings'.

"He told me, 'I can definitely cry today but I will have to move on'. He has high hopes from me," added Babuta about his conversation with Bindra, India's first individual Olympic gold medallist.

On his competition over the last two days, he said, "It was a roller-coaster with many many ups and downs. The quality of shooters here is good. But the Indians are in a position now where we just don't think about qualifying for Olympics but aim to win medals. Everyone is capable and everyone (in the shooting contingent) can win medals," he said.

Babuta said that his preparations for the Olympics had begun a long time back but the pressure did take a toll on him.

"Definitely, there was that fight mentally. My preparation was very good before the final; it started much before the Olympics... the preparations and the will to fight.

"I was wanting to be in the present and focus on process... I was not aware where I was placed and only focusing on the medal. I will think about this (final). I gave my 100 per cent today. It was not my day, I hope it happens in the future.

On his decade-long journey, he said it was not smooth.

"It was not easy; it took me 12 years to reach here. I could not make it to Tokyo because of a back injury. I would have been happier had I won a medal. Today, whoever I met, my coaches, support staff, everyone, I cried on their shoulder. It was important for me today to do this... I needed to let it (tears) flow, so that I can move forward."