New Delhi, Sept. 9 -- When the trials for the Asian Games were held, Nitesh Siwach's father made the journey to watch his son compete in person.

Afterwards, he didn't say much, just one line that Nitesh has carried with him ever since, according to a press release.

"My father told me, now there is no looking back, you have to bring a medal at the Asian Games, and after that, at the Olympics and the World Championships too. Then he said, 'This is a very good beginning for you'. That line has stayed with me since that day," Nitesh recalls.

For a 23-year-old about to walk into his first Asian Games, it is a line that captures a journey that goes back much further than these trials, one shaped by a promise made long before he ever stepped ...