Indian shooting celebrated a landmark moment on Saturday as Neeru Dhanda won gold in the women’s trap at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Lonato, Italy. The Indian Army shooter held her nerve through a tense 30-target final, finishing with 27 hits to claim the biggest victory of her career and, remarkably, India’s first-ever World Cup gold in the women’s trap event.
Dominant From Start to Finish
Dhanda arrived in the final as the form shooter of the week, having topped qualification with a superb 121 out of a possible 125. Carrying that momentum into the eight-woman medal round, she settled quickly while bigger names faltered around her. Silvana Stanco of Italy, the Paris 2024 silver medallist shooting in front of a home crowd, endured a difficult final and was the first eliminated.
As the field narrowed, Dhanda confirmed her podium place with rounds to spare, but the gold had to be earned the hard way. Former world champion Carole Cormenier of France pushed her to the closing targets, and Italy’s Erica Sessa, a former junior world champion, claimed bronze. Under the sort of pressure that has undone many favourites at Lonato’s storied ranges, the Indian never blinked.
A Breakthrough Years in the Making
The victory is Dhanda’s first individual medal at a World Cup and only the second of her career at this level, making the colour of it all the more striking. For Indian shotgun shooting, long overshadowed by the country’s pistol and rifle successes, it represents a genuine breakthrough on one of the sport’s most competitive stages.
It also continues a purple patch for Indian shooting as a whole, which recently topped the medal table at the Asian Championships in New Delhi with a 94-medal haul. With the sports ministry now requiring federations to publish LA 2028 selection criteria by July 15, performances like Dhanda’s arrive at the perfect moment in the Olympic cycle.
Eyes on Los Angeles
Trap shooting has been an area where India has knocked on the door internationally without quite breaking through in the women’s event. Dhanda’s gold changes that conversation. At the halfway point between Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028, India suddenly has a proven finalist and now a champion in a discipline that offers Olympic quota places in the seasons ahead.
For Dhanda herself, the target now is consistency: converting one golden week in Italy into a sustained presence in world finals. On the evidence of Lonato, where she outlasted Olympians and world champions alike, the foundations look rock solid. Indian shooting has a new star, and her timing could hardly be better.
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