LUCKNOW, Aug. 13 -- For Jiya Yadav, swimming isn't fun only, it's a mission to make India proud one day and for that she has been working hard in the pool before making a splash at the 3rd Asian Youth Games scheduled to be held from October 13 to 21 at Bahrain. "That's going to be a real kick-start to my career in sport, if I make a podium finish at the Bahrain event. That would also be my first professional international event and I want to make it a memorable one as I aim to make my country proud in the Olympics also in future," said Jiya on her return from training in Bhutan on Tuesday. "It was a great training stint of 15 days in Bhutan under the guidance of national coach Partha Majumdar and it helped me a lot to improve my skills. In fact, I am aiming to better my timings both in 50m and 100m backstroke to make a podium finish at the Bahrain event," said Jiya, 15. Her present timing in 50m backstroke is 31.16 sec, whereas in 100, it's 1.07.5 and she has set a target of 30 seconds in 50m and 1.06 in 100m as she feels that getting these times won't be much of a problem for her. "If I manage these timings, I would surely be finishing among the top three," she said. A natural backstroke swimmer, Jiya has also been working hard on her fitness as she believes that fitness helps a swimmer a lot. "Swimming demands high quality fitness and during high altitude training in Bhutan, I also worked on my fitness as it makes a lot of difference in swimming," she added. Jiya's entry into the sport was accidental as she started as fun and for life saving at the local stadium in Jhansi where her father Vijay Yadav, a former athlete, taught her basics after learning through YouTube. And after winning a few medals in the district events, Jiya fell in love with the sport. "In fact, backstroke chose me from day one as my father told me to do so as I was swift in this style even though I did all four styles of the sport. Both me and my father watched YouTube for further improvement in my training in my early days of sport," she said, adding, "Once I developed the interest in sport, I switched over to the Glenmark Academy of Swimming Federation of India in New Delhi." Jiya, who also happens to be the only swimmer from Uttar Pradesh to participate in the Asian Youth Games, refused to accept that swimmers in India aren't the world class and said that in the last one decade, there has been a significant presence of Indian swimmers at the international level. "Undoubtedly, the competition is tough, but in the last one decade there has been a tremendous change in perception for Indian swimmers, who are doing well internationally," she said. Her father Vijay Yadav admires her daughter's progress in sport. "I had my apprehensions with water sport, but I chose to make my daughter a fighter in water. So I decided to make her a swimmer so that she could be strong enough to handle herself in her life and put her in an English medium school here in Jhansi so she could be educated enough to know the world well," said Vijay. "For her only, I used to learn about backstroke while watching YouTube so that I could guide my daughter in the beginning. And the best part of Jiya's career was that she never objected to any corrections. She is a fast learner and keeps learning all the time," he added....