Chennai: National swimming champion MB Balakrishnan, passed away after he met with an accident in Chennai. He was 29 years old.

Balakrishnan was riding a bike along with a female pillion rider when he tried to overtake a concrete mixer truck. The two-wheeler brushed against the truck and he lost control of the vehicle.

Balakrishnan fell on to the road and the truck ran over him. The pillion rider, however, escaped unhurt.

The incident took place when he was traveling from Arumbakkam to Jayalakshmi Colony and the accident was caught on CCTV camera located in the area.

Balakrishna’s body was sent to Government Kilpauk Hospital for post-mortem. The truck driver, Subramanian, who hails from Vizhupuram has been detained.

Reports say that Balakrishnan, who works in the US, had recently returned to Chennai. On Tuesday, he met his relatives and went for a drive through Arumbakkam on Poonamallee highway.

Balakrishnan is the son of a doctor couple. He won the gold at the 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka in the year 2010. Balakrishnan held the record for the best performance in the 50m backstroke at the 2010 Federation Cup.

In an interview, years ago, Balakrishnan had said that he would not make a career out of his passion for swimming.

Balakrishnan had said that making a career out of passion would only kill the passion. He had iterated that he would make a career out of engineering.

Speaking about why he loved swimming, Balakrishnan had said that there was no judge and no one to take away his win through unfair means.

Balakrishnan was an alumnus of Guindy Engineering College and studied MS in the US. A backstroke swimmer, he was a Commonwealth Games medal prospect at the age of 21 and weeks before the event was attacked by unidentified assailants in Chennai