Paris Olympics: Arjun Babuta's era will begin in 2025, says a confident coach Deepali Deshpande
The Hindu
Deepali Deshpande reflects on Arjun Babuta's near miss at the Olympics, confident in his future success.
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.