It's been three weeks since he won the match that ended with him bagging a gold medal at an Inter-University boxing competition in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, but 21-year-old Shashikant Yadav, remembers the details with vivid clarity. "I had seen Akshay's [his opponent's] earlier fights. I was confident to knock him down in all three rounds of the bouts in the final match," he says. Describing his match strategy, Shashi says, "I had been stepping back after every punch in each round, which lasts for three minutes."

Shashi, a third-year BCom student from Kandivli's Thakur College of Science and Commerce, is a native of UP's Jaunpur district and lives with his uncle Shivadhar in Jogeshwari. His father Ramadhaar Yadav, a fruit-seller, left Mumbai after facing chronic heart disease. Shashi, who is on scholarship at the college says, it was a poor academic record that made his uncle push him towards sports. "I chose boxing when I was in Class 6, after watching my seniors make a good name for themselves in this field and securing central government jobs." He participated at state-level boxing competitions while still in Class 8.