It is usually mentioned that ending fourth within the Olympics is peak agony.
If coming final carries the sting of embarrassment, securing the fourth place inflicts the ache of being so close to but up to now, one thing that may both drive an athlete to future glory or depart them utterly crushed.
India’s affair with close to misses at sport’s grandest stage has been a long-standing one, starting means again in 1956.
Here’s a have a look at the cases when Indian athletes got here shut however ended at simply that.
1956, Melbourne
The Indian soccer group made the semifinals after beating hosts Australia 4-2 within the quarterfinals, with Neville D’Souza turning into the primary Asian to attain a hat-trick on the Video games.
By giving his group the lead, Neville regarded like doing an encore within the last-four conflict in opposition to Yugoslavia. However the Yugoslavians got here again strongly within the second half to seal the competition of their favour.
Within the bronze medal classification match, India misplaced to Bulgaria 0-3, drawing to an in depth an eventful few days which the nice P Okay Banerjee would usually reminisce with a touch of comprehensible anguish.
1960, Rome
The legendary Milkha Singh missed out on a bronze by the narrowest of margins.
The official photograph end of the 400m ultimate on the Olympic Video games in Rome on September 06, 1960. It reveals Otis Davis of the U.S. (nearer, proper) turning his head as Carl Kaufmann of Germany lunges on the tape together with his head. This trick, which gave Lee Calhoun of the U.S. the excessive hurdles title, didn’t work for Kaufmann. The judges awarded the race to Davis however gave each athletes the world file smashing time of 44.9s. Malcolm Spence of South Africa is third in 45.5 and India’s Milkha Singh fourth in 45.6.
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The Hindu Archives
Competing within the 400m ultimate and touted as a medal contender, the ‘Flying Sikh’ fell quick by a mere 1/tenth of a second after slowing right down to steal a look at his fellow opponents, an error that he would remorse for the remainder of his life.
This might go down as his worst reminiscence after dropping his mother and father within the aftermath of the partition.
Milkha nearly gave up the game after this loss and it required lots of persuasion for him to hit the monitor once more and win two gold medals within the 1962 Asian Video games.
1980, Moscow
With high hockey nations such because the Netherlands, Australia and Nice Britain boycotting the Moscow Video games over the us’s invasion of Afghanistan, the Indian girls’s hockey group had an amazing probability to complete on the rostrum in its first try itself.
Indian girl hockey participant Rekha Mundapan and Natella Krasnikova (USSR) earlier than a hockey match.
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The Hindu Archives
However the group endured the agony of narrowly lacking out on a medal, dropping its final match to erstwhile USSR 1-3 to complete behind Zimbabwe, Czechoslovakia and the hosts.
1984, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Olympics introduced again reminiscences of Milkha in Rome when PT Usha missed the 400m hurdles bronze by 1/one hundredth of a second, making it the closest-ever miss for an Indian athlete in any competitors.
P.T. Usha and different Kerala athletes obtained a rousing welcome on their return from the Los Angeles Olympics.
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The Hindu Archives
Often called the ‘Payyoli Specific’, she ended fourth behind Romania’s Christina Cojocaru, however her heroic effort left an enduring impression and she or he grew to become a family title.
2004, Athens
After an extended hole of 20 years, the curse of the fourth place returned to hang-out the Indian contingent when the celebrated duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi missed out on the rostrum on the Athens Video games.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in the course of the males’s doubles bronze medal tennis match in opposition to Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic within the Olympic Video games 2004 in Athens on August 20, 2004.
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Arguably India’s biggest doubles pair in tennis, Paes and Bhupathi missed out on a bronze medal after dropping a marathon match to Croatia’s Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 6-4 14-16 to finish fourth.
Earlier than that, the Indian pair went into the semifinals as favourites however misplaced to the German duo of Nicholas Kiefer and Rainer Schuttler in straight units 2-6 3-6.
On the identical Video games, Kunjarani Devi completed fourth in girls’s 48kg weightlifting competitors, however she was probably not in medal competition.
Disqualified in her ultimate try to elevate 112.5 kg within the clear and jerk class, Kunjarani completed with a complete effort of 190kg, 10kg behind bronze-medallist Thailand’s Aree Wiratthaworn.
2012, London
Shooter Joydeep Karmakar skilled the horrible feeling of ending a spot behind the bronze medal winner on this version.
File photograph of Joydeep Karmakar.
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The Hindu
Karmakar had completed seventh within the qualification spherical of males’s 50m rifle inclined occasion, and within the finals, he ended simply 1.9 factors behind the bronze medal winner.
2016, Rio de Janeiro
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar grew to become the primary Indian girl gymnast to compete on the Video games. After making the ultimate of the ladies’s vault occasion, she completed fourth total with a rating of 15.066 and missed the bronze medal by 0.150 factors.
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar in the course of the 2016 Olympics.
She launched the game to India and gave the message that one would not must be born within the USA or Russia to grow to be a superb gymnast.
On the identical Video games, Abhinav Bindra’s illustrious profession was headed for a fairytale end however 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 on the Beijing Video games.
2020, Tokyo
Somewhat greater than 4 a long time after the 1980 Moscow Video games, the members of the Indian girls’s hockey group as soon as once more endured the same ache on the Tokyo Olympics, lacking out on the bronze.
The Indian aspect punched above its weight triggering an upset to knock three-time Olympic champions Australia to make the semifinal.
Indian girls hockey group have a good time their win over Australia in the course of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Video games at Oi Hockey Stadium on August 2, 2021 in Tokyo
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Within the semifinals, they suffered a 0-1 defeat to Argentina however nonetheless had a shot on the bronze. They regarded on target to win the elusive medal as Rani Rampal and Co. took a 3-2 lead in opposition to Nice Britain.
However Britain scored twice to go up 4-3 and clinch the medal, leaving the Indian group in tears.
On the identical Video games, golfer Aditi Ashok additionally skilled the agony of lacking out on a historic podium end.
Ranked two hundredth on the earth, the 26-year-old matched the perfect golfers on the earth shot for shot. However, she ultimately fell quick after coming agonisingly shut and completed fourth.