Asian Games 2026: India's women's trap team wins silver as China takes gold
India's women's trap shooting team won the silver medal at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, continuing the country's medal run in the shooting events at the Games.
The Indian trio of Neeru Dhanda, Aashima Ahlawat and Manisha Keer finished with a combined score of 328, placing second behind China, which took gold with 346.
In the team trap event, the scores of all three shooters are added together to arrive at the team total. Dhanda returned the strongest Indian individual score of 118, followed by Ahlawat with 106 and Keer with 104. Their combined effort was 18 points behind China's winning total.
The silver adds to India's tally in shooting, a discipline in which the country has traditionally been among the stronger competitors at the Asian Games. The result also gives the women's trap squad a podium finish at a continental meet, an outcome that will be noted as the team builds towards future international competitions.
Tuesday was among the busiest days of the Nagoya schedule, with medal events spread across several disciplines. Indian athletes were scheduled to compete in athletics, shooting, cycling and the martial arts events, among others, as the Games moved into its final stretch.
On Monday, Indian athletes competed at the Paloma Mizuho Athletics Stadium, where a national record was broken and several personal bests were recorded. India added medals on the day, though the top step of the podium remained out of reach in the events contested.
India's campaign in Nagoya has followed a familiar pattern in recent editions of the Asian Games, with shooting and athletics accounting for a substantial share of the country's medals. Shooting, in particular, has been a dependable source of podium finishes for India over the past two decades, and the women's trap team result on Tuesday fits that record.
The Nagoya Games are being held in and around the Aichi prefecture in Japan, with competition venues spread across the region. The shooting events are among the earliest to be decided in the daily schedule, given the nature of the sport and the requirements of range management.
For Dhanda, the score of 118 in the team event stands out as the highest by an Indian shooter in the women's trap competition on the day. Ahlawat and Keer, both of whom have represented India in international competitions, contributed scores that kept the team within touching distance of the leaders through the rounds.
China's gold medal-winning performance of 346 underlined the strength of its trap programme, which has consistently produced contenders at both Asian and global level. The gap of 18 points between the two teams reflects the margin that separated the leading nations in the event.
India's shooters will have further opportunities to add to the medal count as the remaining individual and mixed events are decided over the coming days. The athletics programme also continues, with several Indian athletes in contention across track and field disciplines.
The silver in the women's trap team event takes India's shooting medals at Nagoya to a modest but steady count, and keeps the country in the reckoning in a sport where it has historically punched above its weight at the Asian level.
