Arvind KatyalChandigarh, November 5
Indian sport has lost a bright volleyball star, Sunil Kumar, a former student of Shivalik Public School, Sector 41.
He was on the verge of making it to the senior national volleyball team, but unfortunately he met with an accident while returning to his home at Amin village in Haryana from Chautala village last Saturday. Later, he succumbed to his injuries. He was attending a camp in preparation of the state team for the national volleyball meet to be held at Chautala in the end of November. He had taken two-day leave on account of Divali, during which this mishap occurred.
Describing his death as a great loss to the Indian sport fraternity, Mr D.S. Bedi, Director-Principal of Shivalik Public School, said the boy was very sensible, hardworking and had put in a lot of effort to improve his game during his tenure in their school. It may be recalled that Sunil was a member of the Shivalik Volleyball Academy and had learnt fundamentals of the game from the Sports Authority of India coach, Mohan Nagreta. He represented Chandigarh in various national-level events before being picked up by the Volleyball Federation of India for national junior camps.
Later, he was selected in the Indian junior team. He played various international tournaments and gave splendid performance.
Last year, he was recruited by the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC). Recently, Mr Randhir Singh, General Manager, HSIDC, had expressed hope that with players like Amir Singh, Sunil Kumar in their team, the HSIDC was once again poised to put Haryana on the top of the volleyball scenario in the country.
Mohan Nagreta, who coached Sunil Kumar from 1997 onwards at the Shivalik Academy, was in tears while terming the death of Sunil Kumar as an irreparable loss to the volleyball community. He said no one could ever have thought of such a sad end to a superb volleyball player of the country.
