India's 35-Member Shooting Squad Spent Up to 8 Hours Stranded Before Nagoya Asian Games Opened

Since Indian athletes first reported waiting up to 14 hours for hotel rooms in the days before the Asian Games opened in Nagoya, more details have emerged about what went wrong. India's 35-member shooting contingent, one of the country's strongest medal groups, has now detailed exactly how its arrival went wrong.

The team, led by double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, landed at Nagoya airport around 9 PM on September 15 after a seven-hour layover in Hong Kong, according to India.com. Customs and accreditation cleared fast, within about two hours. Then nothing moved.

Athletes and coaches sat with no transport from 11:45 PM until 3 AM, India.com reported. When a bus finally showed up and delivered them to their hotel, they learned only 7 rooms had been reserved for all 35 people.

Hindustan Times, which spoke directly with team members, reported a similar sequence: a two-and-a-half hour wait just for a bus after landing, an empty transport desk with no volunteers on duty, and confusion serious enough that a security guard told the group he was arranging taxis because staff couldn't reach the bus drivers. "We told him that we are 35 people, have a lot of luggage and it will not be possible to travel by taxis," one team member told HT. "He was a little surprised and it seemed there was no information of the contingent size."

The hotel mix-up compounded things. The team had confirmed bookings at the Grand Tiara, the area's largest hotel with gym facilities, HT reported. Only seven of those rooms actually materialized there; the rest of the reserved space went to support staff and physios who needed room for treatment tables. The other 33 people ended up split across a nearby Toyoko Inn with what HT described as rooms so small "you cannot open your luggage."

According to India.com, the Indian Olympic Association had to step in with emergency arrangements, splitting the squad across two properties roughly 400 meters apart. With no transport left to move luggage, male athletes reportedly made multiple trips between the two buildings to carry gear and ceremonial uniforms for female teammates, on top of hauling shooting equipment. Check-in finally wrapped between 5 and 5:30 AM, more than eight hours after the plane landed.

Similar problems emerged during training runs on September 17. The Aichi Shooting Range sits roughly two and a half hours from the athletes' lodging, and when the team tried to leave at 7 AM for an 8:20 AM session, only one bus showed up for a group that needed several. HT reported the bus's capacity was 50 while more than 100 people needed rides, forcing some shooters to wait an extra hour just to get moving.

Thekashmirimages reported the problem wasn't limited to shooters. India's full 501-athlete delegation, its largest ever at an Asian Games, dealt with the same cramped, under-equipped rooms and long waits across the board in the run-up to Saturday's opening ceremony.

No Games organizer or Nagoya organizing committee official has publicly explained the room and bus shortfalls, based on the reporting available. The IOA's role has been limited to damage control, arranging backup lodging after the fact rather than fixing the underlying transport and booking failures.

None of this changes what's expected on the range. Competition opens Sunday with the women's 10m air rifle, featuring Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Uttam Maskar and Vidarsa K Vinod, according to Rediff. Manu Bhaker chases her first individual Asian Games gold under new coach Jelena Aunovic. Esha Singh and Suruchi Inder Singh arrive as reigning World Cup gold medallists in pistol events, and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar holds a world record in the 50m rifle 3 positions after his win at the Asian Shooting Championships in Delhi, per revsportz.in.

Whether the exhausted travel schedule affects performance won't be clear until results start coming in Sunday. China remains the favorite to challenge India's shooters for the podium, and India is chasing a repeat of its record 22-medal shooting haul from the 2022 Hangzhou Games.