Fourth curse: Some just fall off the cliff

RIO DE JANEIRO: Gymnast Dipa Karmakar narrowly missed the bronze by finishing fourth in the women's vault event even as shuttler Saina Nehwal, the men's hockey team and tennis pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna crashed out on a dismal day for India at the Olympic Games 2016. August 3, 2012, London Olympics: Belarusian Sergei Martynov is clear on top of the table but Lionel Cox, Rajmond Debevec and Joydeep Karmakar are slugging it out for the other two medals in 50m rifle prone. As soon as the last round of shots is fired, the TV camera zooms in on the exulting Debevec and Cox, moving away from the shooter from Calcutta still prone, slamming the floor with his right fist. August 14, 2016, Rio Olympics: Joydeep Karmakar is glued to the TV in his New Town flat, willing gymnastics queen Dipa on to beat India's Olympic Sign of Four. And maybe the Karmakar curse. Even before the second vault of Simone Biles, he has his head in his hands. "As soon as I saw the US girl execute a perfect first vault I looked away from the TV screen and put my head in my hands. I could not look at her second vault as I feared Dipa's fate would be the same as mine," Joydeep said Joydeep Karmakar missed the bronze in London by 1.9 points with a score of 699.1. Dipa Karmakar missed the bronze in Rio by 0.150 points, with a score of 15.066. They joined a long list of so-near-yet-so-far Indians at the Olympics. (See chart)

Reliving that London moment four years and another Olympic on, Joydeep said: "But you could not have seen what I did when the cameras were no longer on me. I kissed my rifle. Being fourth in the Olympics is the trickiest position to be in. You cannot decide whether you did well or you failed. Only later was I to realise that from bronze to the fourth place is not a slide but a fall off a cliff." After finishing fourth, flooded with congratulatory messages, Joydeep remained on a high till two hours after the event when fellow-shooter Vijay Kumar won a silver. "Watching him on the podium, it hit me what I had missed. And I broke down," Joydeep said. Going by the present medal-less form of Team India, Dipa might not face such a heartbreak moment in Rio. But two fellow fourth-place finishers were quick to rally behind the 23-year-old from Agartala. "The country must celebrate Dipa's success. Let the Produnova not be a 16-day fad. Do ask how Dipa is doing a year down the line too. Otherwise you would not have the right to criticise our athletes," said Joydeep. @Abhinav_Bindra "Dipa Karmakar you are my hero!" tweeted Abhinav Bindra, minutes after Dipa lost out by a whisker. The Beijing gold medalist had lost the shoot-off against Ukrainian Serhiy Kulish on Monday in Rio and missed a bronze. For Joydeep, losing a bronze meant much more than losing a medal. All the prize money announced was for medal winners. He was handed a government cheque for Rs 50,000 - the same as any other Indian athlete participating in the Games and returning empty-handed. First round exit or finishing fourth, same difference. "Only someone who failed to advance beyond the first round can tell you what it means to be fourth in any event in an Olympic final. For others, it's all the same," rued Joydeep. By his estimates, those 1.9 points four years ago cost him over a crore in prize money alone. Moreover, his two main sponsors - Sahara and Mittal Champions Trust - shut shop after the London Games and he was dropped from the government's Target Olympic Podium programme. "This was when I realised that from bronze to the fourth place is not a slide but a fall off a cliff," said Joydeep. But Joydeep has clawed his way back by opening a shooting academy inside a renovated warehouse in the SAI complex in Salt Lake stadium. "I draw a lot of positivity from my students," he said. He also runs a shooting programme at The Newtown School, which is minutes away from his New Town apartment where he shifted from his Nagerbazar home after marriage. Joydeep often rewinds to the video of that final round. "The others were shooting so well - Martynov posted a world record - that I don't think I could have done anything better at any point." But he is not hanging up his Walther rifle just yet. "Being fourth causes such an emotional void that you cannot come to terms with it till you either give it all up or you win a medal." With the 20-odd pistol bullets left with him, he tried his hand last week at target practice. "My scores are still Olympic standard," he said, with a smile that betrayed an equal measure of pride and pain.   -The Telegraph Calcutta