Nagoya | The wrestling mat did not quite work out for Himanshu Dhillon but it left him with something far more valuable -- a never-say-die attitude that came to the fore on the biggest day of his young shooting career.

On his 21st birthday, Dhillon refused to settle for bronze, fought his way past teammate and former world champion Rudrankksh Patil and walked away with a silver in the men's 10m air rifle at the Asian Games here on Monday.

It was his first senior international medal and, fittingly, it came on a day when the lessons from his brief tryst with wrestling proved as important as his shooting skills.

"When I started shooting, I felt, 'Kahan panga le liya maine' (have I taken the right decision by taking up shooting). When I used to lie down on the mat, I would wonder if I had made the right choice," Dhillon, the junior World Cup champion in New Delhi last year, said following the biggest achievement of his career.

"Today, after winning the silver, I realise whatever decision I took was right. It was not a wrong decision." Shooting, after all, was never part of the original plan. His father had sent him to Gurukul Pundri in Kaithal to make him self-reliant. Dhillon was also a little on the heavier side as a youngster, and his uncle Hardeep Singh Dhillon -- an Olympian who competed at the 2016 Rio Games -- suggested wrestling.

But the young Dhillon soon discovered that wrestling was a different kind of battle.

"Wrestling is a hard, difficult sport. I was not able to adjust to its rigours," he said.

There was, however, a shooting range at the gurukul. Dhillon started spending time there and gradually found himself drawn towards a sport that would eventually change the course of his life.

His parents made their own sacrifices along the way. They left their village and moved to Kaithal to support their son, making Monday's medal particularly satisfying for Dhillon.

"My parents also made sacrifices. They left their village and came to Kaithal. So I am very happy that their sacrifices have borne fruit," he said.

The gurukul may no longer exist -- Dhillon believes it has since shut down -- but what he learnt there stayed with him. It surfaced again when the qualification round threatened to become hectic. His coach's message was simple: forget the medal, forget the final and concentrate on the next shot.

"My coach asked me to follow the process and not overthink about the match, the final or the medals. He told me to remain in the present," Dhillon said.

That advice, coupled with the fighting instinct picked up on the wrestling mat, proved crucial when the final reached its tense closing stages.

Once bronze was assured, Dhillon could have settled for what would already have been a landmark achievement. Instead, he chose to keep fighting.

"When I was assured that the bronze had been secured, I could have probably given up hope. But my mindset was not to give up. I still felt the colour of the medal could change. Maybe Rudrankksh (Patil) could falter or I could shoot a good score," he said.

Rudrankksh did falter. Dhillon stayed in the fight and seized the opportunity, moving ahead of his more accomplished teammate to claim silver.

It was the kind of finish that reflected the mentality he had carried from Haryana.

"Aao, milao aur chala do," Dhillon said, recalling the rustic phrase he had grown up hearing -- a typically Haryana way of saying, essentially, 'come together and get on with it'.

There was another piece of Haryana wisdom waiting for him at home.

His father has never been one to let his son become comfortable with anything less than the ultimate prize. "I belong to Haryana, and my father only says, 'only get gold, no other medal'. Only the one who wins gold is the winner, all else are losers," Dhillon said.

So even on his 21st birthday, after winning his first senior medal and helping India's Asian Games tally, Dhillon was already looking beyond silver.

"In the final today also my intention was to aim for gold. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. But I will keep trying to win a gold in some international competition soon."