Shooter Babuta Breaks Medal Drought at World Cup in Lima

Indian wins silver at 10m air rifle, his first individual medal in World Cup this year

- Rutvick Mehta

MUMBAI: Moments after his 10m air rifle final in Lima, Arjun Babuta walked up to coach Deepali Deshpande with some words. "He told me, 'ma'am, aaj Olympics ke baad first time mazaa aaya final mein (I enjoyed a final for the first time after the Olympics)'," Deepali said.

For months after the Paris Olympics in July-August last year where he finished a painful fourth, Babuta was left bereft of that joy. He didn't feel like picking up his rifle, firing those shots, chasing the medals. On Saturday, as he stood with his rifle in hand after winning silver at the ISSF World Cup Lima, he raised both his arms and let out a loud roar.

The joy was back. So was the belief-boosting medal.

After three years of wait — he last won an individual World Cup medal in 2022 (Changwon, gold) — and several months of woe, the 26-year-old from Punjab found himself back on the podium. In some fine company at that. China's Sheng Lihao (252.4) took the gold that Babuta (252.3) had within his grasp until the final two-shot series. A 10.9 and 10.3 from the Chinese to 10.3 and 10.5 from the Indian made the difference in the end. Lihao is the Paris Olympics 10m air rifle champion. Sweden's Victor Lindgren, the Paris silver medallist, came fourth in Lima.