Travel Issues Continue To Haunt Indian Shooters At Asian Games Despite Two Medals

Elavenil Valarivan won two silver medals at Asian Games 2026© X (formerly Twitter)

India opened their medal tally at the Asian Games 2026 on Sunday, with rifle shooters Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Uttam Maskar and Vidarsa K. Vinod winning silver medals for the country. The trio secured silver in the women's 10m air rifle team event, while Elavenil went on to claim another silver in the individual competition at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Range. Despite the medals, the Indian shooting contingent has continued to face significant difficulties in Japan due to poor travel arrangements by the organisers.

According to the sources of NDTV, the Indian shooters and coaches have been subjected to multiple logistical challenges since arriving in Aichi-Nagoya for the Games.

The timeline of events is as follows:

September 15: The shooting team landed in Japan and was made to wait for nearly three hours at the airport before the players and coaches were escorted to their hotel.

September 16: Rest day.

September 17: Shooters and coaches were forced to wait for another three hours as no bus arrived to transport them to the competition venue.

September 18 and 19: An additional bus was allocated, but the entire team was still unable to travel together to the shooting range for practice sessions.

September 20: Despite India's two silver medals, it was a frustrating day for the shooters and coaches. The bus did not have enough seats for everyone, forcing the coaches to deboard so that the athletes could reach the venue on time. The shooters then had to wait for the coaches to arrive before beginning their preparations.

September 21: Following a delayed and difficult entry process, the shooting team had to wait around 20 minutes to board a bus due to long queues. While organisers had estimated the travel time from the hotel to the shooting range at 80 minutes, the journey took more than two hours.

Shooting Schedule for September 21

Men's 10m Air Rifle Individual Qualification: Himanshu Dhillon, Parth Rakesh Mane and Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil at 6.15 AM.

Women's Skeet Individual Qualification (Day 1)

Parinaaz Dhaliwal, Raiza Dhillon and Maheshwari Chauhan at 6.30 AM.

Men's Skeet Individual Qualification (Day 1): Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Bhavtegh Singh Gill at 6.30 AM.

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