CHENNAI: A 29-year-old national swimming champion died in a road crash at EVR Salai in Arumbakkam on Tuesday night. M B Balakrishnan, a resident of Jayalakshmi Colony, Shenoy Nagar, was riding his motorbike back home with a friend.
“As he reached EVR Salai in Arumbakkam, he tried to overtake a lorry when his bike touched the lorry and he lost control of the vehicle. He fell and the lorry ran over him. His friend fell on the left side and escaped with injuries,” said a police officer. Police said Balakrishnan sustained severe head injures and died on the spot. The body was sent to the Government Kilpauk Hospital for postmortem and later, handed over to the family.
The Anna Nagar traffic investigation police arrested the lorry driver Subramanian, 32, of Villupuram.
Balakrishnan had won a gold medal in the 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka.
In 2010, a month before he had to participate in the Indian squad’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, he was waylaid and attacked by an armed gang. He had graduated from College of Engineering, Guindy and pursued his Master’s in the United States.