Former State badminton doubles champion, John Nissi passes away at 61

John Eipe Nissi, former State badminton doubles champion and a member of the Kerala team which won the National Games gold in 1987, passed away here on Saturday. He had been battling cancer for some time. Nissi, 61, was a former State doubles champion with Bose Ninan.

Nissi, who lived in the US and Denmark before returning to Kerala, virtually came from a family of badminton players. Nissi and Bose Ninan also won the men’s 50-plus age-group doubles gold at the 2013 World Masters Championship in Italy and the 55-plus bronze at the 2017 Worlds in New Zealand.

His sister Elizaba Suni was a former State champion and brother Nebu was a good player. Nissi was a very popular man in the badminton circuit and during his visits to India used to frequently organise players’ get-together.

“You won’t find anybody like him, the friendships he made… he was a very jovial person,” said former State champion John Of Matha.

“We have a badminton group and every month we met at his house.”

Nissi’s two sons Joshua and Joel, who live in Denmark, are excellent badminton players too. Joel Eipe, representing Denmark, was a doubles silver medallist at the 2015 Junior Worlds in Peru with Frederik Sogaard and a former European junior doubles champion while Joshua is a prominent coach.