Ri-Bhoi (Meghalaya): Deenadayalan Vishwa, one of the top Tamil Nadu Table Tennis players, passed away in a road accident on Sunday, while travelling by road from Guwahati to Shillong to participate in the 83rd Senior National Table Tennis Championships.
Eighteen-year-old D. Vishwa was part of the Tamizhaga Table Tennis Association (TTTA) State men's team who were on their way to take part in the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State table tennis championships to be held in Meghalaya, Shillong. It was also informed that the driver of the tourist vehicle also succumbed to severe injuries, and was later identified as Dipal Das.
Union Minister for Sports, Anurag Thakur called the incident "heartbreaking" and offered condolences to D. Vishwa's family and friends.
"Heartbreaking to learn that Tamil Nadu paddler, Deenadayalan Vishwa passed away in an accident in Ri Bhoi District. He was on his way to Shillong to participate in the 83rd Senior National Table Tennis Championship. Sincere condolences to his family and friends," the Sports Minister tweeted.
Heartbreaking to learn that Tamil Nadu paddler, Deenadayalan Vishwa passed away in an accident in Ri Bhoi District. He was on his way to Shillong to participate in the 83rd Senior National Table Tennis Championship. Sincere condolences to his family & friends. pic.twitter.com/XpeJMG4ad3
— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) April 18, 2022
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin in a tweet said, "Shocked beyond words to hear about the heartbreaking and untimely demise of our young, promising Table Tennis player Vishwa Deenadayalan. He was a legend-in-making and it pains me that he left us too soon. I offer my deepest condolences to his family, friends and sports fraternity.
Shocked beyond words to hear about the heartbreaking & untimely demise of our young, promising Table Tennis player Vishwa Deenadayalan. He was a legend-in-making and it pains me that he left us too soon. I offer my deepest condolences to his family, friends & sports fraternity. pic.twitter.com/hFlrR0Mycl — M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) April 18, 2022
Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) in a statement said, "A 12-wheel trailer, coming from the opposite direction, ploughed through the road divider and hit the taxi at Shangbangla, just after the Umliy check post, and plunged into the gorge."
The TTFI further said, "Vishwa’s rise to stardom was also steady. His transition from Cadet to Sub-Junior to Junior section was an eye-opener for any teenager aspiring to make it big. He had won the Cadet and Sub-Junior National titles also. The B.Com student of Loyola College won the Under-19 Boys title during the Dehra Dun National Ranking Tournament this January."
The federation also said that Vishwa, who holds several national ranking and international medals to his credit, was to represent India at the WTT Youth Contender at Linz, Austria, from 27 April. He was trained by Ramnath Prasad and Jai Prabhu Ram and was from Krishnaswamy TT Club in Anna Nagar.
According to Police, the accident occurred when the Swift Desire car was on its way from Guwahati Airport to Shillong. The car was hit by a truck on the NH 6.
The report also stated that the accident had occurred after the overspeeding of the truck at the turning point over the median of the highway. The overspeeding truck tramped the tourist vehicle and fell to the gorge of 50 meters.
Later, the truck driver and other victims of the tourist vehicle who received severe injuries were immediately rushed to Nongpoh Civil Hospital but later were referred to North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) hospital Shillong, while the corpse of the deceased person were shifted to Nongpoh Civil Hospital morgue for the postmortem.
The country's top paddlers namely Manika Batra, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Achanta Sharath Kamal will battle it out in the 83rd Senior National Table Tennis Championship starting on Monday.
Hundreds of India's best table tennis players have already made Shillong their temporary home as the mega event will get underway at the Sports Authority of India's Indoor Training Centre on the North-Eastern Hill University campus.
With inputs from ANI
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