Paris Olympics 2024: Arjun Babuta finishes fourth in 10m Air Rifle event, misses bronze medal
Indian shooter Arjun Babuta agonisingly missed clinching a medal at the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024 after finishing fourth in the 10m Air Rifle event on Monday.
Arjun Babuta is the second shooter to miss clinching a medal on Monday. Earlier, Ramita Jindal finished seventh in the women’s 10m Air Rifle final event.
It was a closely contested contest and Arjun scored 208.4 points and was the last shooter to be eliminated and finished fourth.
Indian shooting legend Abhinav Bindra, who won the gold medal in the same discipline in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, finished fourth in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Chinese shooter Sheng Lihao won the gold medal with a score of 252.2. The score is also a new Olympic record. Sweden’s Victor Lindgren won the silver medal with 251.4 points while Croatia’s Miran Maricic took the last spot on the podium with a total of 230 points.
Arjun had earlier missed qualifying for the medal rounds in the 10m Air Rifle mixed team event after finishing sixth in the qualification rounds, partnering Ramita. The top four teams play the medal rounds.
In the qualifying rounds, Arjun shot a total of 630.1 points in the series of 60 shots to finish seventh. His compatriot Sandeep Singh finished 12 with a score of 629.3 points and did not qualify for the final.
In the final, Arjun started well and looked good for a top-three finish and raised the hopes of winning a medal. The 25-year-old looked perfectly in sync and in control and shot a 10.7 in his first shot. He scored 105.0 in his first 10 shots and was third in the ranking list, behind Lihao Sheng (105.8) and Miran Maricic (105.1).
However, just when the eliminations started, Arjun scored a 9.9 in his 13th shot and a below-par 9.5 in his 20th and final shot. The final 9.5 shot meant, Arjun could only finish fourth and miss out on a shooting medal.
At the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024, India’s medals tally stands at one after Manu Bhaker won the bronze medal in the 10m Air Pistol event on Sunday.
Arjun was the third Indian shooter after Manu and Ramita to qualify for the final.
