Five powerlifters killed in accident near Delhi

New Delhi: Five powerlifting players from Delhi were killed in the wee hours on Sunday after their car hit a road divider and crashed into a pole on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway. Among those killed was a world champion who bagged the title for India in Moscow last year. One other player who was in the car was injured.

The six athletes were going from Delhi to Panipat in a Swift Dzire compact sedan, carrying their powerlifting kits, when they met with the accident at 4 am near Alipur village, close to the Singhu border between Delhi and Haryana.

The force of the impact was so high that the car rolled over several times and its roof was ripped entirely away before the car hit the pole, police said.

Powerlifter Saksham Yadav won gold for India in a world championship held in Moscow last year, police said, the others who died in the accident had been identified by their first names as Tikamchand, Saurabh and Yogesh, and Harish Roy, a 20-year-old student.

Yadav was a resident of Nangloi in north Delhi. All the other athletes including Rohit, who is in hospital, were residents of Timarpur in north Delhi.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta stated that they received information around 4.14 am on Sunday regarding an accident near Singhu Border. On reaching the spot, it was found that one car bearing a Delhi registration number met with an accident while going towards Karnal in Haryana. Powerlifting world champion Saksham Yadav and another player identified as Rohit was admitted to Max Hospital in north-west Delhi's Shalimar Bagh. Yadav was later shifted to AIIMS in central Delhi and died from his injuries.

"Liquor bottles were found from the spot, and we are waiting for the post-mortem report to know whether they were drunk or not," said the DCP. According to residents of Sanjay Basti, the bodies were mangled beyond recognition.

Reena, Tikamchand's cousin, told Millennium Post that on Saturday it was his birthday, and there was a celebration in the gym, but at night they left in a car and later they came to know about the tragic incident.

Saksham had dropped his coach Sunil Lochab to his home at 12 am and told him that he was going to a friend's birthday party. "I had told him not to go anywhere, but he said that he was going to his friend's home and would return soon," Lochab told this correspondent.

Saksham was invited as a guest of honour in an event held in Rajouri Garden on Saturday. He was there with his coach from 7 pm to 12 am.

Powerlifting is a different sport from weightlifting in how the weights are lifted -- weightlifting involves overhead movements, while in powerlifting the weight is not directed vertically overhead.