Commander Abhilash Tomy, a retired naval officer, has become the first Indian to complete the prestigious Golden Globe Race.
He finished second in the race, a solo around-the-world sailing race, which started on September 4, 2022 from Les Sables-d’Olonne in France.
“#GGR2022 2nd Arrival Abhilash Tomy (43) / India / Rustler 36 - “BAYANAT”, finished his 2nd solo around the world,” says the announcement made on the official page of the race.
Commander Tomy — five years after suffering a severe back injury in a life-threatening accident in the same event — finished second in the race after South African sailor Kirsten Neuschafer in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.
The retired Naval Commander, who is also a recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, had on March 22, 2022, declared his participation in the Golden Globe Race 2022, one of the most dangerous and craziest of endeavours. “I will be taking part in the Golden Globe Race 2022 on the Bayanat. It is a big thing for me and here is why. On 18 Sep 2018, I was racing in the South Indian Ocean when we were caught in an unusual storm that claimed two of the three boats in its way. Mine was one of them,” Tomy had said in a tweet. The GGR began on September 4, 2022.
Commander Tomy suffered a back injury at the sea after the yacht he was sailing in got dismasted on September 18, 2018. He was stranded in the southern Indian Ocean during GGR 2018, a non-stop, around-the-globe sailing race. He was swept up in a storm that wrecked his yacht and ended up being stranded halfway between Australia and South Africa. He was rescued after 83 days at sea following a complex international effort. He was transferred to an Indian Navy vessel and two days after arriving in India, titanium rods were inserted in his spine and 5 vertebrae were fused into one.
According to the Indian Navy, Commander Tomy was in communication with the Race Control in France through messages, which was relaying messages to JRCC Australia. Navy spokesperson Captain D.K. Sharma had confirmed that “Commander Abhilash Tomy K.C. of the Indian Navy, representing India in the Golden Globe Race 2018 [GGR] on an indigenously built sailing vessel ‘Thuriya’ was dismasted and suffered a back injury yesterday. He is in the south Indian Ocean, approximately 1900 nautical miles from Perth, Australia and 2700 nm [approx 5020 km on the ground] from Cape Comorin [Kanyakumari].”
