Babuta, 25, a quota winner for the Paris Olympics, shone with a sensational score of 254.0 in the OST T1 final. The score was 0.3 above the mark set by fellow finalist and Indian teammate Divyansh Singh Panwar at the Cairo World Cup earlier this year.
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New Delhi: Arjun Babuta broke the existing final world record (FWR) in the men’s 10m air rifle en route to a resounding victory at the ongoing Olympic Selection Trials (OST) 1 and 2 for the rifle and pistol in the Karni Singh Range in New Delhi on Thursday.
Babuta, 25, a quota winner for the Paris Olympics, shone with a sensational score of 254.0 in the OST T1 final. The score was 0.3 above the mark set by fellow finalist and Indian teammate Divyansh Singh Panwar at the Cairo World Cup earlier this year.
Nancy (Women’s 10m Air Rifle), Varun Tomar (Men’s 100m Air Pistol) and Rhythm Sangwan (Women’s 10m Air Pistol) also scored victories in their respective OST T1 final matches .
Babuta’s scoresheet included two perfect 10.9s, in addition to 13 shots of 10.6 and above.
His lowest score of 10.0 came on the 21st shot, by which time he had already established a huge lead over the field, eventually winning by 2.8 points over 2022 world champion Rudrankksh Patil (251.2 ). Sri Karthik Sabari Raj (229.6) finished third.
OST update:
Arjun Babuta (center) wins the 10M Air Rifle OST T1, ahead of Rudrankksh Patil (right) and Sri Karthik Sabari Raj (left). Arjun’s 254 was a whopping 2.8 ahead of his nearest rival.#OlympicSelectionTrials #Road2Paris #IndianShooting pic.twitter.com/XIHU9MHcdJ
– NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) April 25, 2024
Nancy also excelled in the women’s 10m air rifle, taking a comfortable victory in the OST T1 final.
Her total of 253.4 missed the world mark by 0.6, but it was enough to push quota holder Mehuli Ghosh back by 0.7 points (252.7). Olympian Elavenil Valarivan (230.5) finished third.
The men’s 10m air pistol final saw Parisian quota holder Varun Tomar claim another comfortable victory, with a score of 244.1. Ravinder Singh (240.0) was 4.1 points behind in second position, while Varun’s compatriot and Parisian quota holder Sarabjot Singh (217.4) clinched the final podium spot.
Sangwan, one of three female shooters to qualify for the 10m air pistol and 25m sports pistol events, made up for her earlier disappointment in the sports pistol events, winning the former comfortably 10m air pistol trial match.
After dominating the qualifying round on Wednesday with a score of 578, she led from start to finish in the final to collect the most points available on the podium. His score of 243.5 was 5.7 points higher than that of second-placed Manu Bhaker (237.8). Reigning Asian Games champion Palak (217.5) finished third.
In the OST T2 qualifying round of the men’s and women’s 50m rifle 3 positions, Olympians Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Anjum Moudgil topped the score table.
Aishwary was particularly sensational, posting a superb 595 to move eight points ahead of his nearest rival Swapnil Kusale (587).
Niraj Kumar (587), Chain Singh (585) and Akhil Sheoran (584) ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively after the qualifying round.
In the OST T2 qualifying round of the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions, Olympian Anjum Moudgil shot 589, followed by Asian Games gold medalist Sift Kaur Samra (587), Shriyanka Sadangi (587), Nischal Singh ( 587) and Ashi Chouksey (585).
