18-Year-Old Tamil Nadu Table Tennis Player Vishwa Dies In Road Mishap In Meghalaya

Shillong: An 18-year-old tennis player from Tamil Nadu, Vishwa Deenadayalan, died in a road accident while travelling from Guwahati to Shillong by taxi on Sunday.

He 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.

''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,'' an official statement from the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) said in a statement.

The taxi driver died on the spot, while Vishwa was declared brought dead by the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences.

Vishwa and his three teammates were rushed to the hospital by the organisers with the help of the Meghalaya government.

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.

As per the statement, the father of Vishwa and a couple of family members will be arriving in Guwahati tonight and Vishwa's embalmed body will be flown to Chennai tomorrow morning.

The officials of the Meghalaya Table Tennis Association and that of the Ribhoi district administration at Nongpoh will oversee the completion of all the formalities and receive the bereaved family members at the airport.

Justice Gita Mittal, the chairperson of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), condoled the unfortunate death of Vishwa and also spoke to Kishore Kumar, wishing him and other players a speedy recovery. S.D. Mudgil, the other member of the CoA, also spoke to a higher-ranked police official of Assam for a hassle-free clearance at the airport tomorrow morning.

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.

Taking to the micro-blogging site Twitter, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma mourned 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.

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