UNDAUNTED by a heavy downpour and chilly conditions, Neeru Dhanda gave India its first ever women’s trap gold in the Asian Games before the women’s 4x400m relay team added another one in the evening as the country breached the 50-mark in the mega-event’s medal tally to enter the top-10 here on Tuesday. Dhanda’s vision was at times disrupted by incessant rain but the focus was unwavering as she smashed the Asian record to claim the top finish, which was also India’s first individual shooting gold in the ongoing Games with a score of 28 in the finals. In the evening, the women’s relay team of Kiran, Prachi Choudhary, MR Poovamma and Vithya Ramraj claimed the 4x400 women’s relay top honours with a timing of 3:29.69 seconds. Of these, the 36-year-old Poovamma was a member of the Indian teams that won gold medals in the 2014 and 2018 Asiads as well. Vithya had earlier bettered the legendary PT Usha’s over four-decade-old national record to claim bronze in the 400m hurdles competition. As a result, the country’s standing in the overall tally improved to 10th with 52 medals (6 gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze) so far. It was overall a mixed day in the track and field competitions but India managed to end it on a high thanks women’s relay gold.

 

However, it was nowhere close to the high of six gold medals that the track and field campaign of the previous edition had yielded. Nineteen-year-old high jumper Pooja Singh looked in control for a while but eventually came third with a 1.84m best effort, adding to the bronze tally. The ever-reliable Gulveer Singh completed a treble at the Games, adding a 5000m bronze to the silver medals he won in the 10,000m and 1500m races. Gulveer thus became only the second Indian man to win three track and field medals in a single Asiad after Lavy Pinto’s gold medals in 100m, and 200m and silver in 4x100m relay during the inaugural 1951 Games. Later, the mixed 4x100m relay team of Gurindervir Singh, Sneha Sathyanarayna, Animesh Kujur and Harita Bhadra took the bronze with a season’s best timing of 41.06sec. The men’s 4x400 team of Vishal TK, Dharamveer Choudhary, Jay Kumar and T Manu also ended the campaign with a bronze medal, failing to defend the gold won last time. They clocked 3:01.61sec in the race. Boxer Narender Berwal signed off with a bronze after bowing out in the +90kg semifinals in Asian Games. Narender, however, went down 0-5 to reigning super-heavyweight world champion Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan in the last-four stage. The bronze is Narender’s second at the Asian Games after he also finished on the podium in Hangzhou in 2023. The 31-year-old relied heavily on counter-punches, while Oralbay kept pressing forward and connected with a steady stream of punches.