Nagoya: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 gold 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, M R Poovamma and Vithya Ramraj claimed the 4x400 women’s relay top honours with a timing of 3:29.69sec.

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 Ramraj had earlier bettered the legendary P T 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 the second Indian man and fourth from the country to win three medals in track and field events in a single Asiad after Lavy Pinto (New Delhi 1951, 3 medals), PT Usha (Seoul, 1986, 4 medals) and KM Beenamol (Busan 2002, 3 medals).

The quartet of Kiran Pahal, Poovamma Machettira, Prachi, Vithya Ramraj celebrate after winning the women’s 4x400m relay with a time of 3:29.69 minutes, giving India first gold medal in track and field events at Asian Games 2026