New Delhi: Fourth position. If Arjun Babuta endured a heartbreak in an Olympic final two days ago, Swapnil Kusale has swallowed the bitter pill twice in two majors – 2022 World Championships and the Asian Games. By qualifying for the final of the 50m rifle three positions on Wednesday, Kusale will be hoping to break the jinx in the biggest sporting stage.

At the Chateauroux Shooting Centre on Wednesday, 28-year-old Kusale used all his experience to remain in contention from the start in the 44-shooter field, eventually qualifying seventh with a score of 590 that included 38 hits to the inner ring. Aishwary Pratap Tomar too was in with a chance, but missed out by a whisker. Aishwary scored 589, and the one-point gap pushed him to the 11th spot. Czech Jiri Privratsky, who qualified in the eighth and last place, also scored 590 like Kusale (advanced on inner 10s).

This is the fifth final for Indian shooters in this Olympics, with two bronze medals in their kitty.

The rifle three positions used to be the most gruelling event in Olympic shooting, testing the endurance and technique of shooters. The event, however, has changed a lot since the Tokyo Olympics. The number of shots have been reduced to 60 from 120 in qualification – 20 shots each in the three positions – kneeling, prone and standing. It still remains a challenging event because of the adjustment a shooter has to make while finding the target from three positions. The outdoor conditions too play a role.

The margins have been fine in the shooting competitions in Paris. Babuta, Elavenil Valarivan and Sarabjot Singh would know. A 95 in the standing position proved costly for Aishwary. China’s Liu Yukun, hot favourite to win the title, topped the field with 594. Yukun set two world records at the ISSF World Cup in Baku.

The final field will also have France’s Lucas Kryzs, the 2023 World Cup Final champion, and Norway’s European champion Jon-Hermann Hegg. It can go down the wire, and nobody would know that better than Kusale. He cannot afford to dip even slightly in the 45-shot final. At the 2022 World Championships, Kusale had almost secured a medal but an 8.2 took him down to an agonising fourth place. But with that strong performance Kusale ensured that India had the 3P quota early in the Olympic cycle.

At the Asian Games final, Kusale was going great and a medal again seemed within touching distance, but a 7.6 came out of nowhere to push him out of reckoning and to fourth place again. Heartbroken, Kusale went back to his chair in disbelief, shaking his head.

He has since worked on his game and it showed the way he shot in the qualification. “I think there was some wind today and that had some effect on the scores. Swapnil was very accurate and he had a lot of inner 10s (38); this accuracy is going to help him in the final tomorrow,” his coach and former international, Deepali Deshpande said.

Kusale has come a long way since making his mark in 2015 when he beat the big guns, Olympic medallist Gagan Narang and Chain Singh to win his first senior national title. Before Tokyo, he was in fine form and was fighting for the quota, neck-and-neck with the two quota winners Aishwary and the seasoned Sanjeev Rajput. This time, he made sure he won the quota and sealed it with strong shooting in the high-pressure Olympics selection trials at home.

“After not making it to Tokyo, I made changes in my shooting. I am a different shooter. I have focused on developing a strong mind and not losing confidence when scores are low,” Kusale had said.

In the last three years, Kusale has been consistent and performed at the big international stage. At the Baku World Cup in 2022, he won silver in the 50m rifle 3 positions for his first individual ISSF World Cup medal. “He is a more mature shooter now and knows how to deal with situations. When he started, he hardly used to speak and kept things to himself,” said Deshpande.

Not everything was going right for him before the Olympics. At the pre-Games national camp in Bhopal, Kusale was doubting his technique in kneeling, which is his strong point. “In standing position, he has been a little shaky and we made some adjustments. In Bhopal, however, he started complaining about kneeling and that was worrisome so close to the Olympics. But he has overcome that phase and he fought really well today.

“He is a sharp shooter, and he was very patient, taking one shot at a time during the qualification. It will help him during the final,” she said.

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