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.

Early and personal life

Babuta was born on 24 January 1999 in Jalalabad, Punjab, India. He is the son of Neeraj Babuta and renowned Punjabi author-poet Deepti Babuta. 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.

Babuta raised the issue of not receiving support from the Punjab State Government even though he was allegedly promised a government job in 2022.

Career

Babuta won one gold medal and one bronze medal in the 10 m air rifle event at 2016 Junior World Cup in Gabala. In 2017, he won silver at the 10th Asian Airgun Championship, Wako City in Japan.

He also won the silver in the 27th Meeting of Shooting Hopes 2017 international junior competition, Plzen, Czech Republic. He won one bronze in 2018 Junior World Cup in Sydney.

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.

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.

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. Babuta made it to the final of men's 10 m air rifle after placing seventh in qualification. He finished fourth in the closely-contested final.

External links