Loughborough Uni student dies in tennis stadium in China

A Loughborough Uni student has died after falling down a lift shaft at a tennis stadium in China. 

Robin Llyr Evans was an employee of sports technology firm, Hawk-eye, and was was working on preparations for the electronic line calling system at last year’s WTA Wuhan Open when the accident happened.

The 20-year-old was a former youth rugby player with Pwllheli and was travelling the world working for Hawk-Eye Innovations while on a year out from his Mechanical Engineering degree at Luff.

Days ahead of the women’s tournament starting, Robin arrived at the 15,000-seater Optics Valley International Tennis Centre in the city of Wuhan and was asked to bring technical equipment to colleagues working in the ceiling roof void.

The systems operator and a fellow employee then lost their way around the top tier catwalk. When they attempted to find their way back, Robin apparently mistook the lift shaft panel for an exit point and died from head injuries after it gave way and he fell.

An inquest into the tragedy has just taken place.

Emily Davies, one of Robin’s co-workers said at the recent hearing that the pair went up a ladder to get to the roof area, walked across a beam and then on to a circular catwalk.

She said: “We didn’t know where the others were. We didn’t know which way to go round. I think we chose the wrong direction because we couldn’t find the others. They thought we had taken too long to get there so they had gone down.”

She said they were trying to locate where they had entered as she looked through the slats in the catwalk to the tennis court below.

She continued: “Robin said he had found the exit point so I turned to look at the floor to see if we were in the right spot and that is when I heard a crash. Then I turned around and I couldn’t see him anywhere.”

Robin’s father, Gareth, also told the hearing: “The important thing for us is to know what happened and to make sure it does not happen again to anybody.

“A simple question is could the accident have been avoided?”

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Pritchard Jones said: “What appears to have happened is he must have stood on this panel thinking it was a safe way to get round but unfortunately the panel was the top cap of the lift shaft. It could not support his weight and he fell.”

He said he had no powers to make recommendations to the Chinese authorities about health and safety procedures and said he thought they would probably ignore him anyway because it was, he said, one of numerous countries that do not co-operate with coroners in this country.

Mr Evans and his wife, Menai, from Llanbedrog, near Pwllheli, did not wish to comment at the conclusion of the hearing.

Following his death, they paid tribute to their “talented and fun-loving son” who “lived his short life to the fullest”.

A spokeswoman for Hawk-Eye said: “The thoughts of everyone at Hawk-Eye remain with Robin’s family and close friends.

“We hope that this inquest can in some way help them come to terms with Robin’s tragic death.”