In a tragic road accident, Dondapati Mrutyum Jayaram, a promising athlete who brought laurels to the country at the national and international levels, died in a road accident near Cuttack late on Wednesday (October 21, 2026) evening.

Jayaram, along with Malay Barik, another athlete, was travelling to Cuttack to celebrate Dussehra when they reportedly lost control of their motorcycle and crashed into a road median. Doctors at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack declared both of them brought dead.

Originally hailing from Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, he lived in Bhabanipatna, Kalahandi district, Odisha. He trained at the Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar under coaches Rohit Mane and Martin Owens.

A promising talent in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprints and the 4×100-metre relay, Jayaram has represented Odisha’s junior and senior teams and India’s Under-20 men’s team. The departed athlete won one silver and one bronze medal in the 4×100m relay and the 100m sprint, respectively, in the 4th South Asian Junior Athletics Championship, held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai from September 11–13, 2024.

Besides, he was part of the Indian men’s 4×100m relay team that won the bronze medal with a national record of 40.01 seconds in the 21st Asian Junior (U-20) Athletics Championships at the Dubai Police Stadium in Dubai on April 27, 2024.

Recently, he had won one silver and one bronze medal in men’s 200m and 100m run respectively at the 6th Indian Open U-23 athletics competition held Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, October 16-18, 2026.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi condoled death athletes saying their untimely passing was a profound loss to Odisha’s sporting fraternity.