18-year-old Tamil Nadu TT player Vishwa dies in Shillong car accident
Tamil Nadu’s young table tennis player Vishwa Deenadayalan died in a road accident in Shillong, Meghalaya on Sunday (April 17), the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) said.
The 18-year-old was travelling along with three other teammates by taxi from Guwahati to Shillong for the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships, beginning on Monday, according to a press release issued by TTFI.
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 taxi driver died on the spot, and Vishwa before reaching the Nongpoh Civil Hospital. The doctors declared him brought dead. Ramesh Santosh Kumar, Abinash Prasannaji Srinivasan and Kishore Kumar, who travelled with Vishwa, suffered severe injuries.
In a tweet, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said he was shocked to hear about the untimely death of Vishwa. The CM said he was “a legend-in-the-making”.
“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,” he wrote.
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
Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur too took to Twitter to condole the death of Vishwa. “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,” he said.
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
The organisers of the championships, with the Meghalaya government’s help, 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. Competition manager N. Ganeshan also visited the three boys at the Institute.
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.
He was a product of Krishnaswamy TT Club in Anna Nagar, Chennai and 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.
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.
