Arjun breaches Air Rifle world record in Olympic Selection Trials

NEW DELHI — Arjun Babuta shone brightest on Day Seven of the ongoing Olympic Selection Trials (OST) 1&2 for Rifle and Pistol, breaching the existing finals world record in Men’s 10M Air Rifle, to post a commanding win. His sensational tally of 254.0 in the OST T1 final, was 0.3 above the mark set by fellow finalist and India teammate Divyansh Singh Panwar, at the Cairo World Cup earlier this year.

Also registering wins in their respective OST T1 final matches were Nancy (women’s 10M Air Rifle), Varun Tomar (men’s 100M Air Pistol) and Rhythm Sangwan (women’s 10M Air Pistol.

Arjun’s scoresheet was studded with two perfect 10.9 gems, besides 13 other shots which were 10.6 or above. His lowest score of 10.0 came only on the 21st shot, by which time he had already established a huge gap over the field, winning it by 2.8 in the end over 2022 world champ Rudrankksh Patil. Sri Karthik Sabari Raj was third.

Nancy bosses it in women’s 10m

Nancy was probably a little less lethal than Arjun in the women’s 10M Air Rifle OST T1 final, but definitely as effective in securing a comfortable and similar pillar-to-post win. Her tally of 253.4, missed the world mark by 0.6 but was more than enough to ward off quota holder Mehuli Ghosh by 0.7. Olympian Elavenil Valarivan was third.

Varun and Rhythm claim Air Pistol wins

The men’s 10M Air Pistol final saw Paris quota-holder Varun Tomar securing yet another comfortable victory on the day, with a score of 244.1. Ravinder Singh was a whole 4.1 points behind in the second, while Varun’s fellow Paris quota holder Sarabjot Singh (217.4) picked up the final podium points with a third-place finish.

Rhythm Sangwan, one of three in the women’s field to have qualified for both the Air Pistol and Sport Pistol trials, made up somewhat for the disappointments in the Sport Pistol trials earlier, by taking the overall lead in the Air Pistol event after a comprehensive performance in its first trial match.

After topping qualifications on Wednesday with a score of 578, she led from start to finish in the final to also collect the highest podium points available. Her score of 243.5 was a huge 5.7 better than second finishing Manu Bhaker. Reigning Asian Games champ Palak finished third.

3P qualification round

The day also saw the qualification round for the men’s and women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions OST T2 conducted. Olympians Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Anjum Moudgil topped the scoring charts respectively. Aishwary was particularly sensational as he posted a dizzying 595 to leave an eight-point gap between him and his nearest rival.