After announcing that shooter Jaspal Rana had won the Most Valued Player Award for the 15th Asian Games, the Indian sports administration today realized he was just one of the contenders.

Meanwhile, Rana had landed back in Doha to receive the award which he was told he had won. Korean swimmer Tae Hwan Park who won three gold, a silver and three bronze, took home the award.

Rana was philosophic. “It’s okay, such things happen in life, jomila woh bhi kya kam hai?”

As it turned out, Rana was just one of the four four finalists and he came third in the voting. The others nominated were all from China.

The Indian Olympic Association had told the National Rifle Association of India that Jaspal Rana won the prestigious award. Rana who had come back with three golds and a silver was asked to pack his bag again by the NRAI. Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent Ram Lal Thakur had called it a great feat and IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi made an unofficial announcement.

Thakur believes there must have been a communication problem. “I saw ASV Prasad (former SAI Teams Wing chief and here as an IOA representative) at the function (an IOA party) showing Kalmadi a letter and talking about this award. So there must have been something in black and white.”

Prasad says “there was a letter which talked about the nominations, not the award.”

Who was the letter from? “That I forget now, but the letter was there, and somewhere in between the information changed into award. In the turmoil, somebody did not bother to look into the details of the letter and the wrong message went out.” That was when the NRAI stepped in to send Rana back to Doha.

But the shooter has taken it in his stride. “It’s okay, that’s life,” he said.