Guwahati: Two persons including an 18-year-old table tennis player from Tamil Nadu died and three others were injured in a road accident on Sunday in Meghalaya’s Ri Bhoi district.
Table tennis player Vishwa Deenadayalan and the driver of the cab they were traveling in died following a collision with a truck.
Vishwa Deenadayalan’s three teammates identified as Ramesh Santosh Kumar, Abinash Prasannaji Srinivasan and Kishore Kumar were also critically injured in the accident.
They have been admitted to the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) in Shillong.
Vishwa was travelling with three teammates from Guwahati to Shillong for the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) said in a statement.
“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 release stated.
The taxi driver died on the spot, while Vishwa was declared brought dead by doctors at NEIGRIHMS.
Vishwa, a promising player with several national ranking titles and international medals to his credit, was to represent India at the WTT Youth Contender at Linz, Austria, from April 27.
Vishwa, a product of Krishnaswamy TT Club in Anna Nagar, was trained by Ramnath Prasad and Jai Prabhu Ram had come in for praise from none other than Sharath Kamal.
The ace paddler rated him as a highly-talented boy with a lot of promise.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has condoled his death.
“Saddened to learn that Tamil Nadu paddler, Deenadayalan Vishwa passed away after an accident in Ri Bhoi District while on his way to Shillong to participate in the 83rd Senior National Table Tennis Championship in our State,” he tweeted.