Asian Games Day 10: Neeru Dhanda India’s standout performer

AICHI-NAGOYA, Sept 29:

Some medals are won; some are remembered. Neeru Dhanda's gold on Tuesday belongs to the second category. The Haryana shooter kept her nerve, her aim and apparently her sense of humour intact in the rain and chill of Aichi-Nagoya to win the women's trap gold at the Asian Games, becoming the first Indian woman to win an individual gold in the event.

With 28 hits in the final, Neeru also equalled the Asian Games record, turning a day of wet weather and awkward visibility into a golden one for herself and a historic one for Indian shooting.

The 26-year-old did not arrive at the final as an unknown quantity. She had already helped India win silver in the women's trap team event earlier in the day, but the individual final demanded something more precious than ammunition - composure.

She stayed ahead when the pressure mounted, found the targets when others faltered and finished with the gold that had eluded India in individual trap since Randhir Singh won the men's title in 1978.

For Indian women, the wait had been even longer. Neeru's victory was the country's first individual Asian Games medal in women's trap, and she promptly made it gold.

There was little romance in the weather. The rain came down, the visibility was troublesome and the targets did not become any larger out of sympathy. Neeru, however, behaved as though she had made a private arrangement with the shooting gods.

The gold was another chapter in a remarkable 2026 for the shooter, who earlier became the first Indian woman to win an individual ISSF World Cup gold in trap at Lonato.

Her Aichi-Nagoya triumph now gives Indian shooting another heroine and the Asian Games another memorable story.

Day 10 produced several Indian highlights - Gulveer Singh completed his three-medal haul with a 5,000m bronze, the women's 4x400m relay team won gold, while athletics added more medals and records. But Neeru's performance had the ingredients of a headline all by itself: gold, an Asian record, a historic first and the end of a 48-year wait. In sport, history usually arrives with trumpets. On Tuesday, it arrived with 28 well-aimed shots. (UNI)