Neeru Dhanda: Sets Sights on Olympic Shotgun Medal

Neeru Dhanda Eyes Olympic Medal

A 26-year-old shooter from Haryana has become the first Indian woman to win trap gold at the Asian Games, and she now has her eyes on an Olympic medal. Her winning score of 28 in the final broke the previous Asian record of 24, marking a milestone for Indian shotgun shooting.

She entered the final as joint leader with Qatar’s Ray Bassil, both finishing on 118 points in qualification, which is a Games record. In the final she finished ahead of Bassil to take the individual title. She also won silver in the women’s trap team event alongside Manisha Keer and Aashima Ahlawat, with India scoring 328 against the 346 of gold-winning China.

The result follows another first in July, when she became the first Indian woman to win an individual trap gold at the ISSF World Cup in Italy, her first individual World Cup medal. Before this Asian Games, the last individual trap gold for India came from Randhir Singh in the men’s event at the 1978 Bangkok Games.

Her rise has been far from conventional. Reports describe how she began with a borrowed gun, which set her on the path to the top of the sport. That story has made her a symbol of what determination can achieve in a discipline where equipment and training access can be costly for young athletes.

With an Asian Games gold and a World Cup title in hand, attention now turns to the Olympic podium. India has waited a long time for a shotgun medal at the Games, with Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver in 2004 the last such success. Fans will be watching closely to see whether she can end that wait in the coming Olympic cycle.