Aichi-Nagoya: India’s 10-day wait for an individual gold in the Asian Games came to an end on Tuesday with shooter Neeru Dhanda winning it in the women’s trap event.
It was a flawless performance by her after she contributed towards the Indian women’s team winning silver earlier in the day.
Neeru put up an exceptional performance in the final event as she missed only two of her 30 shots. Her final score of 28/30 is an Asian record.
The 26-year-old Indian had dominated the competition from the start after finishing joint-first in the qualification event alongside Qatar’s Ray Bassil with 118 hits.
With this performance, Neeru became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the women’s trap event in the history of the Asian Games. In fact, no other Indian female shooter had previously found herself on the podium in the Asian Games, making it the first medal of any colour in the event for India, as reported by timesnow.in.
The silver medal was won by China’s Sun Yungong, while Kuwait’s Hajar Abdulmalik took home the bronze medal.
Neeru is originally from the Jind district in Haryana and took up shooting by taking inspiration from her maternal cousin Lakshya Sheron, who won the silver medal in the men’s trap individual event in the 2018 edition of the Asian Games in Jakarta.
Fer family moved to Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri, where she took up shooting. After initially training with Lakshya, she joined the Madhya Pradesh academy. Before that, her father started her journey in the sport by making her practice hitting at tin cans.
Neeru made history earlier this year at the ISSF World Cup by becoming the first Indian woman to win an individual trap event gold medal in the tournament’s history. Last year, she also won the gold in both the individual and women’s trap events at the Asian Championships.
This is India’s fifth gold medal in the ongoing Asian Games (second in shooting) after the Indian Women’s cricket team, the Indian men’s and women’s Kabaddi team, and the 10m mixed pistol team event (Suruchi Singh/Kamaljeet).