Arjun Babuta Bags Silver at ISSF World Cup 2025

Indian shooter Arjun Babuta pocketed a silver in 10m Air Rifle event at the ISSF World Cup 2025 after finishing just 0.1 points behind reigning Olympic champion Lihao Sheng of China. 

Babuta, who had finished fourth in the men’s 10m air rifle at the Paris Olympics last year, finished with 252.3 points while the Chinese scored 252.4.

Babuta had a strong opening part to the second competition stage, but Sheng managed to slowly close the gap, sitting just 0.3 behind into the last two shots. A 10.3 and 10.5 looked good enough to seal the title, but Sheng pulled out a 10.9 and a 10.3 to sneak ahead, with the totals finishing 252.4 to 252.3.

Hungarian rifle star Istvan Marton Peni, who was the early leader, held onto the bronze medal ahead of Olympic silver medallist Victor Lindgren of Sweden. Jon-Hermann Hegg from Norway came close to the medals, but a difficult last round saw him eliminated in fifth.

Ole Martin Halvorsen, also of Norway, Rylan Kisseell of the United States finished sixth, seventh. Meanwhile, Buenos Aires World Cup winner Rudrankksh Patil was disqualified after the second series of shots for shooting before the command to shoot was given by the range officials. Patil finished the final in eighth place with 104.8.

Meanwhile, another Indian in the final, Rudrankksh Patil, was disqualified after the second series of shots for violating ISSF Rule 6.11.1.1.h, which relates to "shooting before the command" given by the range officials. Patil finished eighth with 104.8.

In the women's 10m air rifle event, Aarya Borse finished 5th with 188.1 points in the final, which saw Chinese shooters sweeping the podium. Arya shot a superb 633.9 on Saturday (Apr 19, 2025), to qualify for the final, finishing only behind the reigning junior world champion and eventual gold medalist Wang Zifei of China, who set three world records on the day.

Arya, bowed out after the 18th shot of the 24-shot final, her score reading 188.1, just 0.1 behind silver-winning reigning world champion Han Jiayu of China, who was fourth at that stage.

Wang also led a Chinese sweep of the medals in the event as another upcoming young talent Fan Xinyi took bronze. Wang set a new junior qualification record (635.9) as well as the new junior and senior final world records (254.8) in a stunning display of air rifle shooting throughout the day.

India are currently third in the medal table with two gold, as many silver and a bronze for a total of five medals.

Over at the Shotgun ranges where the trap competitions also got underway, two Indian trap shooters, veteran Zoravar Sandhu in the men’s trap and Pragati Dubey in the corresponding women’s event, began with flawless first rounds of 25 each.

Zoravar, however, ended up with a tally of 70 after three rounds to finish the day at 21st while teammates Prithviraj Tondaiman and Lakshay Sheoran shot 69s to end 24th and 25th, respectively.

Among the women, it was national champion Bhavya Tripathi who finished best among the Indians with a tally of 69 (24, 22, 23), placing her seventh, while Pragati with 68 was lying ninth. Neeru was further back in 18th with a total of 60 hits.

—IANS

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