The width of a marble. That is how close Arjun Babuta had come to making the cut for the Indian team that would compete at the Hangzhou Asian Games and ISSF Shooting World Championships last year.
After a few middling performances at the World Cups in Baku and Bhopal, the 25-year-old 10m air rifle shooter had a change in fortunes. He won the silver medal at the 2023 Asian Shooting Championships in Changwon, South Korea, to win a Paris Olympics quota.
After a year of being on the sidelines for major competitions, Babuta put himself back in the reckoning for India when it mattered the most.
At the National Rifle Association of India’s grueling trials in April and May for the Olympics that start this Friday, Babuta beat the likes of World Championship gold medallist Rudrankksh Patil and Divyansh Singh Panwar to clinch one of the two spots for Paris.
In a competitive field where even the smallest of margins could come back to haunt the shooters, Babuta began with a world record score of 254 in the final of the first trial (the record however cannot be ratified since it was in a domestic event). The Chandigarh-native was a picture of consistency as he finished in the top three of each of the four selection trials to secure his ticket to Paris.
“I was always struggling to get into the top three [last year],” Babuta told Scroll before departing for Paris. “But even after scoring 632 average [in the qualification round], I was always the third or fourth-ranked shooter thanks to our young athletes. That helped me to get better at my game and push my limits.
“It feels great that the hard work is paying off. I’m not focusing too much on getting on the podium [in Paris], but I’m working towards what’s going to help me to get there.”
After being on the periphery of the Indian team for the past year, Babuta peaked at the right time in a highly-competitive series of trials. It is also testament to the sheer quality in the 10m air rifle squad that Babuta had to dig deep to finally get the job done.
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Despite falling short of being the first-choice shooter last year, Babuta resisted the urge to go back to the drawing board. Key to his success at the trials was focusing on making small improvements to his routines rather than making wholesale changes.
“I usually work on improving by one percent in anything I do,” Babuta said. “Be it training or nutrition, I strive to improve by a percent daily. It is a continuous process. And that is what’s been helping me over the years, and it’s helping me now as well. I’m simply following my routines.”
Babuta also realised that there was nothing separating him from his compatriots when it came to technique or skills. Instead, he needed to work on his mental conditioning to get the smallest of advantages over his compatriots.
“I think the most important mental aspect is hunger and that is something nobody can teach you or build inside you,” he added. “It was there naturally, but I needed to maintain it.”
Babuta worked with the National Rifle Association of India’s psychologists to work on maintaining his psychological center which is crucial in grounding himself while in the pressure cooker-like environment at the trials and the Olympics.
“I just need to maintain my mental levels because there will be a lot of limelight at the Olympics,” he said. “I have to maintain my peace and space so that I can follow my process at the right time.”
Hopes are high from the Indian shooting contingent in Paris. With 21 shooters each, India and China boast the largest shooting contingents at the Games and both nations will be expected to win multiple medals.
However, the past few editions have shown that more shooters doesn’t necessarily translate into more medals at the Olympics. The pressure will be higher on India given the disappointing showing at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics where they failed to win a single medal despite boasting quality shooters.
Babuta and fellow 10m air rifle shooter Sandeep Singh will have added pressure given that they will be competing in the event which has given India two of the four Olympic medals the country has won. While Abhinav Bindra won India its first individual Olympic gold medal in Beijing 2008, Gagan Narang, who will be India’s Chef de Mission in Paris, won bronze in London 2012.
Babuta, who took to the sport after idolising Bindra and Narang, knows that he will be under scrutiny in Paris. Babuta understands that managing expectations is not under his control. All he can do in Paris is to stick to his process and ensure that the outside noise does not get to him.
In a 10m air rifle field filled with world champions and Olympic medallists, Babuta is the underdog going in. But as evidenced from his meticulously planned comeback over the last year, he will not back down from a fight.
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