Naib Subedar Neeru Dhanda to be India’s women’s flag-bearer at Asian Games 2026 closing ceremony

Naib Subedar Neeru Dhanda of the Army Marksmanship Unit will carry India’s women’s flag at the closing ceremony of the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya on Sunday, 4 October 2026, after a strong shooting campaign that produced three medals for the country.

The confirmation came on Friday from India’s deputy chef de mission, Anjali Bhagwat. Speaking about the ceremonial role, Bhagwat said, “She is returning to Nagoya tomorrow morning to be the woman flag bearer. The decision on the male flag bearer will be taken tomorrow.” The men’s flag bearer had not been announced when the decision was made. The closing ceremony is scheduled to take place at Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium in Nagoya.

Dhanda, 26, was born on 25 May 2000. After completing her events, she had returned to Sangatpura village in Jind, Haryana, following what proved to be a highly successful Games campaign. Because of Japanese firearms rules, shooters are not allowed to keep their guns after competition and must take them out of the country, which means Dhanda is travelling back to Nagoya on Saturday for the ceremony.

Speaking from the airport, Dhanda said she had received the call from Bhagwat only hours earlier. “It’s a big honour for me. I didn’t want to let it go,” she said, adding that her mother had told her that such an opportunity does not come to everyone.

Her selection as flag-bearer comes after one of India’s standout individual performances in Nagoya. Dhanda won gold in the women’s individual trap, becoming the first Indian woman to win an individual Asian Games title in the event and the first Indian woman to claim an individual Asian Games gold in a shotgun discipline. She qualified with 118 out of 125, which was a Games record, and went on to hit 28 of 30 targets in the final, setting an Asian record.

She added a silver in the women’s trap team event with Manisha Keer and Aashima Ahlawat, before winning another gold in the mixed trap team with Kynan Chenai on the penultimate day of the shooting programme. The two gold medals and one silver made her one of India’s most successful medal winners at the Games.

Dhanda’s Asian Games success has capped a rapid rise in international shooting. In July 2026, she won the women’s trap gold at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Lonato, Italy, becoming the first Indian woman to win a World Cup gold in the event and finishing ahead of several leading European shooters. A year earlier, in 2025, she had won both individual and team gold at the Asian Shooting Championships in Shymkent.

She serves as a Naib Subedar in the Corps of Military Police and trains with the Army Marksmanship Unit at Mhow. Dhanda joined the Corps after the Army opened rank-and-file recruitment to women. She took up trap shooting in 2019, relatively late, after being inspired by her cousin Lakshay Sheoran, who won silver in the men’s trap at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.

Her early practice sessions were modest, carried out with a family double-barrel gun and a weapon borrowed from her cousin, often using tin cans as targets, before she moved to the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy. She is currently coached by Olympic champion Peter Wilson.

By choosing Dhanda as the women’s flag-bearer, India has placed an Army shooter at the front of its closing ceremony contingent after a medal-rich showing in Nagoya and a World Cup gold earlier in the year.