Clutch performance: Arya and Arjun beat the Chinese pair of Wang and Sheng in style.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Arya Borse and Arjun Babuta clinched the mixed air rifle gold by beating the Chinese pair of Wang Zifei and Sheng Lihao 17-7 in the shooting World Cup that concluded in Munich, Germany, on Saturday.
The Chinese pair had shot a world record score of 635.9 in qualification, 0.7 point better than the Indian pair. Arya and Arjun stepped it up in the gold medal match for a spectacular finish.
China topped the medals table with four gold, a silver and two bronze.
The Chinese pair clinched the mixed air pistol gold also through Yao Qianxun and Hu Kai. The Indian duo of Manu Bhaker and Aditya Malra shot 577 and placed sixth, missing the medal match by two points.
Suruchi Phogat, the women’s air pistol gold medallist, missed a medal for the first time in six attempts. Suruchi and Varun Tomar shot 576 for 10th place.
In three World Cups, the 19-year-old Suruchi has won four gold, and a bronze medal. It includes a hat-trick of gold in women’s air pistol in Buenos Aires, Lima and Munich.
India was third on the table with two gold and two bronze medals, behind Norway which won two gold, a silver and a bronze.
The two bronze medals for India were won by Elavenil Valarivan and Sift Kaur Samra in women’s air rifle and rifle 3-position events, respectively.
The results: 10m air rifle: Mixed team: 1. India (Arya Borse, Arjun Babuta) 17 (635.2); 2. China (Wang Zifei, Sheng Lihao) 7 (635.9 WR); 3. Norway (Jeanette Duestad, Jon-Hermann Hegg) 16 (632.3); 4. USA (Sagen Maddalena, Peter Fiori) 14 (632.1); 6. India-2 (Elavenil Valarivan, Kiran Jadhav) 631.8.
10m air pistol: Mixed team: 1. China (Yao Qianxun, Hu Kai) 16 (585); 2. Armenia (Elmira Karapteyan, Benik Khlghatyan) 4 (580); 3. Germany (Doreen Venekamp, Christian Reitz) 17 (579); 4. Serbia (Zorana Arunovic, Damir Mikec) 13 (580); 6. India-2 (Manu Bhaker, Aditya Malra) 577; 10. India (Suruchi Phogat, Varun Tomar) 576.
Published – June 14, 2025 07:34 pm IST
