Noorul Hassan, a special athlete with intellectual disability and a student of School of Hope, Jamshedpur passed away at the Tata Main Hospital on Saturday morning.

He represented India at the Special Olympics World Summer Games at Los Angeles, USA in 2015 in the powerlifting event and secured fourth place.

Thirty three-year-old Noorul was an active athlete and was the member of the Jharkhand team which recently won a silver medal at the Virtual National Football Championships held in October this year.

According to Jharkhand Special Olympics (SOJ) assistant area director Satbir Singh Sahota, Nooral, a hypertension patient suffered a paralysis attack on November 20 and was admitted at Tata Main Hospital with high blood pressure. His right side of the body was paralysed.

"Noorul was shifted to HDU (High Dependency Unit) of TMH on November 26. In spite of the best medical treatment, he couldn’t be saved. The entire team of SOJ is in shock at the sad and untimely death of Nooral," Sahota, a former international cyclist, informed.

All the special athletes and officials of Special Olympics stand with the family of Nooral at this sorrowful time, he added.

SOJ area director Bailey Bodhanwala has expressed his grief at the sad demise of Noorul.

Stage set for district cross country

The East Singhbhum District Cross Country Championship, which was earlier scheduled at JRD Tata Sports Complex on December 5 but was postponed due to cyclone Jawad, will be held at Jaipal Stadium in city's Karandih locality on December 12. Performance of the athletes will be the yardstick for selecting the district outfit for the 13th state cross country event to be held in Garhwa on December 23. Athletes in the state event also stand a chance of getting berths in the Jharkhand squad for national cross country championship scheduled in Kohima, Nagaland on January 10 next year, said East Singhbhum District Athletics Association secretary Rabindra Nath Murmu..