New Delhi:The 25-year-old Arjun Babutabreached the existing finals world record (FWR) in men’s 10m air rifle to register a dominating victory in the ongoing Olympic Selection Trials (OST) 1 & 2 for Rifle and Pistol at the Karni Singh Range here on Thursday.
Arjun registered a sensational tally of 254.0 points in the OST T1 final to achieve the incredible milestone. He shot 0.3 above the mark set by fellow finalist and India teammate Divyansh Singh Panwar at the Cairo World Cup earlier this year.
According to a media statement issued by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) apart from Arjun, Nancy (women's 10M Air Rifle), Varun Tomar (men's 100M Air Pistol) and Rhythm Sangwan (women's 10M Air Pistol) have emerged triumphant in their respective OST T1 final matches.
The 25-year-old displayed his ability to stay stable and calm in crunch situations. He hit a couple of 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 missed an opportunity to secure a world record by 0.6 points. However, her tally of 253.4 was more than enough to ward off quota holder Mehuli Ghosh by 0.7. Olympian Elavenil Valarivan was third.
The men's 10M Air Pistol final saw Paris quota holder Varun Tomar secure yet another comfortable victory with a score of 244.1. Ravinder Singh finished the event in second place, 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 her 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.