Shooting World Cup: Arjun Babuta strikes gold in 10m Air Rifle final

Young Indian shooter Arjun Babuta won the men's 10m Air Rifle event to clinch the country's maiden gold medal at the ongoing ISSF World Cup here on Monday.

In a tense gold medal clash, Arjun humbled Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Lucas Kozeniesky with a rather one-sided 17-9 effort.

The 23-year-old from Punjab, who has been representing India since 2016, had earlier topped the ranking match with 261.1 points to qualify for the gold medal clash.

This is Arjun's maiden gold for the senior side. He had bagged 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 ranking event following an impressive show on Sunday, finished fourth with a score of 258.1, behind 33-year-old Israeli shooter Sergey Richter, who scored 259.9.