India continued its fine run in shooting as Arya Borse and Rudrankksh Patil clinched the silver medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team event at the ISSF World Cup 2025, registering the country’s back-to-back silver medals.
The Indian pair lost a tightly contested final 11-17 to the Norwegian duo of Jon-Hermann Hegg and Jeanette Hegg Duestad on Sunday, settling for a well-fought silver. This result follows another impressive showing on Saturday: Arjun Babuta bagged silver in the men’s 10m air rifle event.
The 26-year-old Babuta came agonisingly close to clinching gold, finishing with a total of 252.3 points in the final – just 0.1 behind reigning Olympic champion Sheng Li Hao of China.
Babuta was leading the final until the last double-elimination round, standing at 231.5 to Li’s 231.2 with two shots to go. However, the Chinese shooter flipped the script with a perfect 10.9 on his penultimate attempt, while Babuta could manage only 10.3.
Though Babuta closed with a 10.5 – slightly higher than Li’s 10.3 – it wasn’t enough to overhaul the lead.
Interestingly, Rudrankksh Patil – part of the silver-winning mixed team on Sunday – had endured a forgettable outing in the individual event on Saturday. Despite qualifying in third place with a score of 632, the former World Champion was eliminated early after an error in the final.
Patil’s 11th shot was disqualified due to an early trigger pull, and he did not shoot the following shot. The resulting DQ and miss meant he slipped to the bottom and finished eighth overall.
However, the 20-year-old bounced back strongly in the team event alongside teenager Arya Borse to deliver another medal for India, underlining the depth of talent in the shooting squad