Accident ends rowers' careers

Guwahati, Feb 12 (UNI) International rower and Asian Games medal prospect Gurchar Singh might never have thought that his career would come to an end in such a fashion.

Facing a battle of life, the Services rower has doctors struggling to save his right arm which was crushed in a bus accident yesterday that saw 11 of his team mates sustain injuries.

Playing career is as good as over for Gurchar and two others and the medics were trying to minimise the physical harm to the rowers.

''It will be quite tough to save his arm,'' said Nomal Bora, the CMD of the Guwahati Neurological Research Centre (GNRC).

The accident not only robbed the 33rd National Games of some high quality of rowing but also left India's future international engagements in lurch.

The Rowing Federation of India Secretary General Col C P Singh Deo termed the accident as great loss to the players as well as rowing as a whole.

''But at the moment, the primary concern is the safety and complete recovery of all the injured athletes,'' he said.

The army doctors are in touch and less injured nine athletes have been shifted to Army base hospital at Basishtha.

Besides Gurchar, other top rower Hardev Singh received face injuries and he would be needed plastic surgery to reconstruct his face. ''At least three-four months will be needed for his full recovery,'' said a GNRC spokesperson.

Third critically injured rower is Sunil Kumar. He too received massive injuries in head, hand and wait. The rowing careers of all three are over and this has caused irreparable damage to the rowing scenario of India.

The army doctors have decided to airlift all the three to the Army Hospital New Delhi once their condition is stabilized. ''At the moment they would be in GNRC for some time now,'' said the Organizing Committee member Anup Choudhury.

The Services have been the gold medal contender but they have withdrawn from the competition after the accident, which literally wiped off half of their players.

UNI