TT player Vishwa dies in road accident on way to nationals
SHILLONG: Promising Indian table tennis player Vishwa Deenadayalan of Tamil Nadu, who was on his way to participate in the 83rd Senior National and Inter-state Championships here, died in a road accident on Sunday. Deenadayalan was 18. He was travelling in a car along with his three teammates from Guwahati to Shillong when a 12-wheel trailer, coming from the opposite direction, ploughed through the road divider and hit the vehicle at Shangbangla and plunged into the gorge.
According to a release issued by the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), the driver died on the spot, while Deenadayalan was declared brought dead by doctors at the Nongpoh Civil
Hospital. His teammates— Ramesh Santosh Kumar, Abinash Prasannaji Srinivasan and Kishore Kumar—suffered severe injuries but are currently stable.
The organisers of the championships had rushed them to the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) in Shillong for critical care. “The team of doctors attending to them said the boys were stable,” TTFI said.
Deenadayalan’s father and two of his family members flew down to Guwahati on Monday.
A promising player with several national ranking titles and international medals to his credit, Deenadayalan was to represent India at the WTT Youth Contender at Linz, Austria, from April 27.
A product of Krishnaswamy TT Club in Anna Nagar, he had come in for praise from Sharath Kamal. Deenadayalan’s transition from cadet and subjunior to junior was steady. 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 Dehradun National Ranking Tournament in January.