Arjun Babuta shone brightest on day seven of the ongoing Olympic Selection Trials (OST) one and two for Rifle and Pistol, breaching the existing finals world record in men's 10M Air Rifle. His sensational tally of 254.0 in the OST T1 final on April 25 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), as per a press release from National Rifle Association of India (NRAI). 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 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.
