Three of family die as Gill’s car hits bike on rally route
BARMER/NEW DELHI: Tragedy struck the national rally championship’s Jodhpur leg on Saturday after three members of a family on a motorcycle that had entered the race route died on the spot after being hit at high speed by ace driver Gaurav Gill’s car, organisers said.
The accident took place on Saturday morning as Gill, the first driver, was barely 150m from finishing Stage 1 in Round 3 of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) near Ranideshipura village in Rajasthan’s Barmer district.
Organisers of the rally event, which was immediately called off following the accident, said Gill was barely 200m from the finish line when the accident took place. The deceased have been identified as Narendra, the rider, wife Pushpa, and their minor son Jitendra.
“Despite our best efforts and all the safety precautions being in place, people on a bike had an argument with the officials and forcefully entered the stage despite (officials) trying to stop them. The accident took place within 150-200m from the finish line as the competitor was coming at a high speed,” J Prithviraj, president of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) said.
Police and district administration officials were not immediately available for comment.
Following the accident, Gill was also taken to hospital for treatment. “Gaurav was hospitalised in the afternoon. He suffered some injuries in the accident, but he is not grievously injured. His co-driver/navigator Musa Sherif is fine,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
Rally organiser Arvind Balan, said: “The rally had to be brought to an abrupt end after one of the cars hit a motorcycle carrying three people. The motorcycle had forcibly entered the barricaded area, breaking past the security barrier while the stage was still ‘green’. The driver was moving at high speed and could not even see the motorbike as it (the car) emerged at a sharp turn.”
An INRC promoter was quoted by PTI as saying: “We had been giving warnings about the road closure to the villagers for the past 15 days. There were field marshals but one of the deceased (Narendra) argued with them and when the marshals were looking away, the man broke the barricade and entered the track.”
Gill, a three-time Asia-pacific Rally Championship (APRC) winner, has won the national rally championship six times. He is chasing his third national title in a row. He became the first Indian in motor sport to be given the Arjuna award this year.
He recently won the prestigious Dakshin Dare rally. He is also taking part in the World Rally Championship 2, the second tier of international rallying. The 2019 INRC had completed two rounds, in Chennai and Coimbatore. The last three legs are scheduled in Kochi, Bengaluru and Chikmagalur.
PRAISE FOR IYER
Shikhar Dhawan, who made 40 as the top three aggregated 124 runs (Virat Kohli 72*, Rohit Sharma 12) chasing 150, praised Iyer for his recent efforts. “As they (selectors) are trying out youngsters it is good to give them a good run. You saw in the last match how Shreyas finished the game. You can see from his body language that he is confident, believes in himself. He is just 24 and is doing it so well; he did it in the West Indies,” Dhawan said at a media conference on Saturday.
“Whatever things we want to achieve in the World Cup, we are going to practice from now. By the time we reach the World Cup, we will make sure we are quite refined. We will know our goals with great clarity,” he said.
Kohli followed Sharma’s five centuries in the World Cup with two ODI hundreds in the Caribbean, and in Mohali the India captain struck a sublime halfcentury to push his average over 50 in all three formats.
PROTEAS CONFIDENT
South Africa acknowledged India are indeed very strong, but still fancy their chances of countering the home team’s inexperienced bowling attack on a venue with short boundaries known to favour batsmen. “Definitely that is a big challenge,” said opener Rassie van der Dussen on Saturday when asked about India’s top three batsmen.
INEXPERIENCED
“They (India bowlers) are inexperienced in terms of international cricket but we all know they are quite experienced in terms of T20 cricket.
Especially in home conditions, the guys know how to bowl, much like when you come to South Africa our guys would know how to bowl in our conditions. But it is something we can target, it is an area where we are looking to put pressure on them.”
Although South Africa are still finding their feet, India will have to be wary of their record at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. In four T20 Internationals, India have only two wins, one over Bangladesh by a solitary run in the 2016 World T20. The second win was against England, by 75 runs.
India are expected to continue backing Pant, but a failure here will put a question mark on the wicketkeeper-batsman’s spot in the team after being backed strongly as Dhoni’s replacement.
With Kohli stating recently that players should not take more than four-five matches to prove themselves, Sunday’s contest could be the toughest one yet for Pant.