Changwon: Young Indian archer Arjun Babuta won the men’s 10m Air Rifle event to take the country’s first gold medal in the running ISSF World Cup here on Monday.
In a tense gold medal clash, Arjun humiliated the silver medalist of the Tokyo Olympics, Lucas Kozeniesky, with a rather one-sided 17-9 effort.
The 23-year-old from Punjab, who has been representing India since 2016, previously topped the rankings with 261.1 points to qualify for the gold medal clash.
This is Arjun’s first senior gold. He had taken home the yellow metal at the 2016 Junior World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan.
The other Indian in the fray, Parth Makhija, who also qualified for the standings after an impressive showing on Sunday, finished fourth with a score of 258.1 behind 33-year-old Israeli shooter Sergey Richter, who scored 259.9.
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