Shooter Neeru Dhanda, women’s 4x400m relay team taste the yellow metal
India crossed the 50-medal mark at the Asian Games as Neeru Dhanda clinched the women’s trap gold and the women’s 4x400m relay team topped the podium in a memorable day for the country here on Tuesday.
Braving heavy rain and chilly conditions, Dhanda smashed the Asian record to win the trap gold with a score of 28 in the final. It was India’s first individual shooting gold of the Games and the country’s first-ever women’s trap gold at the Asian Games.
In the evening, Kiran, Prachi Choudhary, M R Poovamma and Vithya Ramraj combined to win the women’s 4x400m relay in 3:29.69 seconds.
Poovamma, 36, was part of India’s gold-medal winning relay teams at the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games. Vithya had earlier won bronze in the 400m hurdles after breaking P T Usha’s long-standing national record.
India’s athletics campaign also produced three more bronze medals. Pooja Singh cleared 1.84m for bronze in the high jump, while Gulveer Singh added a 5000m bronze to his silver medals in the 10,000m and 1500m. He became only the second Indian man to win three athletics medals in a single Asiad.
The mixed 4x100m and men’s 4x400m relay teams also won bronze medals. India’s tally rose to 52 medals — six gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze — placing it 10th overall.
