Neeru, Chenai clinch trap mixed team gold, India's shooting glory continues
Nagoya, Sept 30 (UNI) India's shooting campaign continued to sparkle at the Asian Games as Neeru Dhanda completed a golden double, teaming up with Kynan Chenai to clinch the trap mixed team gold in a tense final here on Wednesday.
The Indian pair held their nerve to finish with 34 points, edging Qatar, who took silver with 32, while China claimed bronze with 23. Iran finished fourth with 12. For Neeru, the victory capped a remarkable two-day run. After becoming the first Indian woman to win an individual Asian Games gold in trap shooting on Tuesday, she returned to the range alongside Chenai to add another title to India's shooting haul. Neeru's individual triumph had itself been historic.
The 26-year-old Haryana shooter shot 28 of 30 targets in the final to set a new Asian Games record, beating China's Sun Yunong and Kuwait's Abdulmalik Hajar. She had also helped India win silver in the women's trap team event earlier on Tuesday. The Indian duo qualified for Wednesday's mixed team final with 136 points, placing fourth behind China, Qatar and Iran. The qualification round remained closely fought, with the standings changing rapidly as the shooters battled for places in the four-team final.
The final was equally tight, with India and Qatar separated by only two points after three series. Neeru and Chenai moved to the top with 26 points and maintained their advantage through the closing stages to seal the gold. Earlier, the Indians had secured at least a medal after both Neeru and Chenai produced a perfect five-hit series, taking their tally to 16 points and eliminating Iran from medal contention.
The victory gave Neeru a second gold in as many days and further underlined her growing stature in international trap shooting. Her consistency across the individual and mixed-team events proved decisive as India maintained its strong presence in the shotgun events at the Games. For Chenai, the gold added to his Asian Games medal collection.
He had won a bronze medal at the previous Asian Games, and his experience combined effectively with Neeru's recent run of form in the mixed-team final. Neeru arrived in Nagoya in strong form after winning gold at the Lonato World Cup in July, becoming the first Indian woman to win a shotgun World Cup title. She had also won gold at the 2025 Asian Championships and a mixed-team bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Almaty earlier this year. Her two gold medals in Nagoya now mark the biggest haul of her career at a single Asian Games and strengthen India's shooting challenge at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.
The trap mixed-team victory also added to India's medal tally in shooting, one of the country's key medal-producing disciplines at the Games, with Neeru emerging as one of the standout performers of the Indian contingent.
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