Both Jayaram and Malaya were trainees of Bhubaneswar-based Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High Performance Centre and resided at Kalinga Stadium. The former was honing his skills at the HPC since 2022, while the latter joined the centre only four months ago.

Another athlete and a staff member of a Kalinga Stadium-based HPC, following Jayaram and Malaya in their motorcycle, also suffered injuries in the accident. The tragic accident has raised questions as to how the HPC authorities allowed the athletes to leave the stadium after 10.00 pm? An effort to get the official version of Parveen Kumar, the HPC Director of Operations, proved in vain as he did not respond to phone calls.

After postmortem, the bodies of the two budding athletes were handed over to respective families. Family members of 20-year-old Malaya took his body to Atabira in Bargarh district, their native place for the funeral ceremony. Since 21-year-old Jayaram hails from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, his aged parents preferred to perform the last rites at the Satyanagar crematorium in Bhubaneswar.

A 100m and 200m specialist, Jayaram was regarded as the most promising sprinter of the State with four junior international and over 25 national medals under his belt. Three days ago he bagged one silver and one bronze at the 6th Indian Open U-23 Athletics Competition in Jaipur.

Malaya was a 400m sprinter with multiple zonal and national-level medals to his name. He won gold medals at the National Indoor Athletics Championships and Indian Athletics Series this year.
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PICS: File pictures of Dondapati Mrutyam Jayaram (Top) and Malaya Barik.