TN paddler Vishwa dies in an accident

Eighteen-year-old D. Vishwa, who was part of the Tamizhaga Table Tennis Association (TTTA) State men’s team for the 83rd senior National and inter-State table tennis championships, died in a road accident on Sunday while travelling by road from Guwahati. The team events begin here on Monday.

It is learnt that Vishwa, a first year B. Com student of Loyola College, was sitting in the rear when the car in which he was travelling collided with a truck. The driver and Vishwa died on the spot. The other three TTTA paddlers — R. Santosh Kumar, D. Kishore Kumar and S. Abhinash Prasannaji — escaped with minor injuries.

Vishwa, who trained at the Krishnaswamy TT Club in Anna Nagar (Chennai), won the youth under-19 boys’ singles title in the National-ranking tournament in Dehradun in January last year and finished runner-up in the same category in the South Zone ranking tournament in December 2021.

Actually, Vishwa was not in the top eight of the TTTA men’s team this season as he hadn’t taken part in the only tournament of the season — the State championships. Vishwa had informed TTTA of his inability to participate in advance as he was due to travel to Belgrade for a WTT Youth Contender which clashed with the State championships. At the same time he had requested TTTA to include him in the team.

After his return he won the selection trials against Malesh Kumar to be part of the team for the Shillong Nationals. He is survived by his parents and elder sister.