Nb Sub Neeru Dhanda won her second Asian Games gold medal on Wednesday, pairing with Kynan Chenai to take the Trap Mixed Team title in Nagoya, Japan. The Indian Army shooter had won the Women's Individual Trap gold a day earlier. A team silver makes it three medals in two days.

Her individual gold on Tuesday was India's fifth gold medal of these Games. It made her the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold in any shotgun event. No Indian had won an individual medal of any colour in Women's Trap since the event was first contested at the Beijing Asian Games in 1990.

Neeru, 26, is a Naib Subedar in the Corps of Military Police and trains at the Army Marksmanship Unit in Mhow. She dedicated her individual medal to soldiers guarding the country's borders, and to her mother and her coach. Speaking about competing in uniform, she said that promotion or no promotion, "we still have to play for the Army", because soldiers on the borders fight and give their lives for the country.

Nb Sub Neeru Dhanda sets an Asian record in the rain

The individual final was shot in heavy rain at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery.

Neeru had topped qualification and carried that form into the final. She went into the last series two targets clear of the field, then hit all five of her remaining targets to finish on 28 out of 30. That is a new Asian record, four better than the previous mark. China's Sun Yunong took silver with 26 and Kuwait's Hajar Abdulmalik won bronze with 21.

In trap, shooters use a shotgun to break clay targets launched at speed from a bunker in front of them. In a final, a single miss can decide the medals.

A team silver, after a hospital stay

The individual gold came only hours after the Women's Trap Team event. Neeru shot alongside Havildar Manisha Keer and Aashima Ahlawat, and the three won silver for India. Neeru's qualification score of 118 out of 125 set a new Games record and was the best by an Indian in the team competition.

She was not expected to be at her sharpest. According to India's trap coach Peter Wilson, she spent three days in hospital just ten days before the competition and arrived in Japan with almost no training.

Mixed Team gold with Kynan Chenai

The second gold came in the Trap Mixed Team event on Wednesday. Neeru and Kynan Chenai qualified fourth, taking the last of the four places in the final, and then came from behind. The Indian pair finished on 34, two ahead of Qatar. China won the bronze.

Nb Sub Neeru Dhanda's Asian Games tally now stands at two golds and a silver.

From a borrowed gun to the Asian Games podium

Neeru took up shooting after being inspired by her cousin, Lakshay Sheoran, who won silver in Men's Trap at the 2018 Asian Games. She started with a borrowed gun. In 2019 she moved to Bhopal to train, with barely six months of experience in the sport behind her. Seven years later, she has gone one step further than her cousin on the same stage.

She came to Japan as the reigning Asian champion, having won the continental title at the Asian Shooting Championship in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, in 2025. In July 2026 she won the Women's Trap title at the ISSF World Cup in Lonato, Italy. It was the first individual trap gold by an Indian woman at an ISSF World Cup.

The Army Marksmanship Unit, part of the Infantry School at Mhow, trains service personnel for competition under the Army's Mission Olympics Wing.

Army athletes add 13 medals to India's tally

Neeru is one of several Indian Army sportspersons on the podium in Japan. The Army's sports effort runs from its Mission Olympics Wing to the Durand Cup, Asia's oldest football tournament.

On the track, Naib Subedar Gulveer Singh, a double medallist at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, won silver in both the 10,000m and the 1,500m before adding bronze in the 5,000m. That is three medals across three tough track events.

Naib Subedar Sarvesh Kushare won silver in the Men's High Jump, India's first Asian Games medal in the event in 56 years. Havildar Sawan Barwal set a national record on his way to silver in the marathon, India's first Asian