But on Thursday, the 18-year-old won a medal that certainly won’t be found lying unattended around the Yadav house. Krishan, who is a stenographer at the Haryana Electricity Department, has already decided that the country’s much-awaited Asian Games boxing gold will have a designated pride of place in his family’s living room. For a family of modest means, the medal is a big reward of the several small sacrifices they have been making for many years now.

When Krishan got transfered to Bhiwani in 1994, Vikas was a toddler and the Yadavs’ new destination wasn’t quite known as the nation’s boxing hub. But the Bhiwani Boxing Club (BBC), the alma mater of many present day boxing stars, existed.

Once Vikas entered the teens, he was hooked to boxing. “Once while going to school, Vikas saw the boxing rings at BBC. He took my bicycle and went to enquire about boxing. The coaches there were quite impressed with his footwork and took him under their tutelage,” says Krishan. Vikas is also an avid chess player and many on the circuit say that he considers the ring as a board with 64 black and white squares.

At an young age Vikas was chosen to train at the Army Sports Institute at Pune.

But that posed a problem for him last year when he reached the finals of the Haryana State Boxing Championship. The officials disqualified him saying he was an outsider. It was only after Krishan and his coach at BBC Jagdish rushed to the venue with relevant documents that he was selected for the state team.