Arjun Babuta misses World Cup gold by 0.1 point

Arjun Babuta narrowly misses gold to Sheng Lihao in air rifle at Lima World Cup; China dominates medals.

Olympic finalist Arjun Babuta came up with a brilliant fare, but qualification topper Sheng LIhao of China (635.0) beat him by 0.1 point for the gold in air rifle in the shooting World Cup in Lima, Peru, on Saturday.

Arjun had a 0.3 point lead before the last two shots, but the Chinese came up with a perfect 10.9 on the 23rd shot and a 10.3 last shot. Arjun had 10.3 and 10.5 in a high quality climax.

The champion of the last World Cup in Buenos Aires, Rudrankksh Patil made the final but finished eighth.

In women’s air rifle, Arya Borse made the final, but placed fifth, while three Chinese swept the three medals.

China jumped to the top of the medals table with three gold, three silver and four bronze, ahead of USA which had three gold, two silver and a bronze. India was third with two gold, two silver and a bronze. Czech Republic followed with two gold medals.

10m air rifle: Men: 1. Sheng Lihao (Chn) 252.4 (635.0); 2. Arjun Babuta 252.3 (631.9); 3. Istvan Peni (Hun) 229.8 (631.1); 8. Rudrankksh Patil 104.88 (632.0); 13. Hriday Hazarika 629.3; RPO: Kiran Jadhav 629.8; Divyansh Singh Panwar 629.3.

Women: 1. Wang Zifei (Chn) 254.8 (WR) 635.9 2. Han Jiayu (Chn) 250.4 (632.8); 3. Fan Xinyi (Chn) 229.6 (631.9); 5. Arya Borse 188.1 (633.9); 16. Narmada Nithin 627.6; 30. Sonam Maskar 623.5.