“I come from a family of runners. My mom came from a very small village where she wasn’t even allowed to wear her running shorts. She was four months pregnant with me when she got selected for the national team and later went on to win a medal for India in athletics at the 2002 Asian Games.

During my childhood, I spent very little time with her because she used to stay away from home training in national camps. There was a time when I couldn’t even recognize her. As I grew up, I hated the fact that she made me train — but it was not until the first big win that I started liking athletics.

Eventually, I was habituated to that liberating feeling of crossing the finishing line and standing on the podium. But winning doesn’t come easy. Once during a national event I injured my knee and even my doctors asked me to give up on running – but after ten months the pain disappeared.

And I feel it was for a reason.

My mom missed the Olympics by a second, I was born for a reason, and I am on the path to finish what she started.”