Arjun Babuta
Indian sport shooter (born 1999)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arjun Babuta (born 24 January 1999) is an Indian sport shooter who competes in the 10 m air rifle event. Babuta competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish in the men's 10 m air rifle event.[2]
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 24 January 1999 |
| Height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Shooting |
Event | 10 m air rifle |
| Coached by | Deepali Deshpande[1] |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Highest world ranking | 3 |
Medal record | |
Early and personal life
Babuta was born on 24 January 1999 in Jalalabad, Punjab, India.[3] He is the son of Neeraj Babuta and renowned Punjabi author-poet Deepti Babuta.[4] He later moved to Chandigarh where he began his career in shooting. He obtained his undergraduate degree from DAV College, Chandigarh, and has a mass communication and journalism degree from Lovely Professional University.[5][6]
Babuta raised the issue of not receiving support from the Punjab State Government even though he was allegedly promised a government job in 2022.[7]
Career
Babuta won one gold medal and one bronze medal in the 10 m air rifle event at 2016 Junior World Cup in Gabala.[8] In 2017, he won silver at the 10th Asian Airgun Championship, Wako City in Japan.[9]
He also won the silver in the 27th Meeting of Shooting Hopes 2017 international junior competition, Plzen, Czech Republic.[10] He won one bronze in 2018 Junior World Cup in Sydney.[11]
A career-threatening back problem kept him out of action from 2018 to 2020. He won gold medals at the 2022 World Cup in Changwon in 10 m air rifle, both in the individual and team events.[5]
At the 2023 Asian Shooting Championships, Babuta won silver in the 10 m air rifle event, earning India a quota place to the 2024 Paris Olympics. He also won gold in the team event with Divyansh Singh Panwar and Hriday Hazarika.[12]
At the 2024 Pairs Olympics, the pair of Babuta and Ramita Jindal finished 6th among 28 teams in the qualifying round of the 10 m air rifle mixed team event, failing to progress to the medal rounds.[13] Babuta made it to the final of men's 10 m air rifle after placing seventh in qualification.[14] He finished fourth in the closely-contested final.[15]