New Delhi: The experienced duo of Shruti Vora and Fouaad Mirza were named in India’s 19-member equestrian squad for the Asian Games to be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4.
The ad-hoc committee, constituted in March by the Indian Olympic Association on the directions of Delhi High Court, named the squad for all three disciplines: Three Day Eventing, Dressage and Show Jumping.
Each event will be represented by four rider-horse combinations.
The dressage team will be led by Vora who won three silver medals at the 2025 Asian Championships. The 55-year-old will ride Magnanimous.
This will be Vora’s third Asian Games, having participated in 2010 Guangzhou and 2014 Incheon. She enters the competition on the back of two successful international seasons. In 2024, she became the first Indian to win a three-star Grand Prix event, achieving the feat when she won at the FEI Dressage World Cup held in Lipica, Slovenia. A year later, her three medals at the Asian Championships in Pattaya, Thailand underlined her class and quality. In 2022, Vora and Agarwalla became the first Indians to compete in an individual dressage event at the World Equestrian Championships held in Denmark’s Herning.
Gaurav Pundir (Milli), Jai Sud (Goofy La Perla), Hriday Chheda (Dono Di Maggio) complete the team. Chheda, who rode Chemxpro Emerald in Hangzhou en route to the team gold, is the only member of the 2023 Asian Games group to keep a spot in the first team.
The committee has also named two reserve combinations each in dressage and show jumping while three-day eventing has three reserve pairs. Anush Agarwalla and Sudipti Hajela, who were part of the team that won the dressage gold at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, have been named reserves.
“The Athletes (Horse/Rider combinations) have been selected based on the recommendations of the respective selection committees after going through the results posted by the probables and as per the selection criteria for the Asian Games 2026,” the committee said in a release.
Mirza, a double silver medallist from the 2018 Asian Games, makes a comeback to the side in his pet eventing discipline. This will be the 34-year-old’s third Asian Games, having previously competed in 2014 Incheon and 2018 Jakarta and Palembang iterations. Mirza, astride Camouflage 38, will be accompanied by Ashish Limaye (Willy Be Dun), Ahaan Kumar (Bolivar Gio Granno), and Arjan Nagra (Cooley Goodwood).
The show jumping team will be represented by Maryk Sahney (Gold Run), Abhishek Chopra (C’est Lui Des Rosiers), Yashaan Zubin Khambatta (Inca’s Big Think), Niharika Singhania (First to Cash Out) with Maryk Sahney (Cashtender) and Ashtray Butta (Chakira Z) being the reserves.
Equestrian has been part of Asian Games since 1982. India have won 14 medals in the continental Games.
