NAGOYA: THE day was gloomy. It was not confined to the outdoors from an Indian perspective. Since the kabaddi teams' gold medals on Saturday, no Indian — individual or team — had managed to occupy the top step of the podium.
The pall of gloom was lifted thanks to Neeru Dhanda (women's individual trap) and the women's 4x400m unit. In doing so, both Dhanda and the relay side created history. First, a bit on the shooter.
In Nagoya, pitter-patter was a constant soundtrack all through Tuesday. It's why Neeru had to endure the toughest of conditions to become the first Indian shooter to win gold at these Games. Raindrops on her hand felt like cold pellets. It was not easy to hold the gun or let the mind wander away from the task at hand. Time and again, she had to remind herself to focus on the job at hand: the final.
But Neeru was determined to make it count. Less than two weeks ago, she was lying on a hospital bed, not knowing if she would get to experience the thrill and tension of a final at a major multi-discipline event.
She was the last to reach the venue, on September 26. She missed three-and-a-half weeks of training. But her grit prevailed in the end as she hit 28 targets in the final, two more than China's Sun Yunong.
If she was battling tough conditions, four women – Vithya Ramraj, MR Poovamma, Prachi Choudhary and Kiran Pahal – overcame immense pressure to win gold. At some level, the Indian women were expected to win this event, as their domination has been total. But marrying expectations and history isn't the easiest thing in the world. However, they did it, even if Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser almost caught them out in the end.
Vithya, called Kovai Express, was in blistering form to win three medals (gold, silver, bronze) here. She broke the long-standing PT Usha's national record (400mH) and came back to anchor India to gold less than 24 hours later. Their time of 3:29.69s was over half a second quicker than the Bahraini quartet.
Out of the six gold the country has won so far, it's noteworthy that four have been won by the women (one in mixed team event), including the two on Tuesday. With the end of the athletics programme at the Games, action will shift to other medal-friendly disciplines like wrestling in the days to come. In all, athletics yielded 24 medals (one gold, not as healthy as the previous edition in Hangzhou).
Gulveer Singh added a third medal when he won the 5000m, a bronze. Overall, compared to other days, Tuesday was a fruitful one.