NEW DELHI: Decorated naval officer Commander Abhilash Tomy said on Friday that he aims to participate in the 2022 Golden Globe Race (GGR) — a solo sailboat race around the world — in which he had taken part last year but was badly injured after his boat was battered by huge waves in the South Indian Ocean.
At the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Tomy revealed that he has started sailing again.
“I recently won a small championship in Goa. Within one year of breaking my spine, I did 50 kilometres of kayaking. That was to mark the first anniversary of my accident. I am trying to get back in the same race in 2022. It is the 75th anniversary of Independence,” he said.
The naval officer was rescued from the Indian Ocean in September last year in a multi-nation operation after he suffered a severe injury when the main mast of his sailing vessel ‘Thuriya’ was ripped off in a storm. He was sailing as part of the Golden Globe Race.
His boat was damaged in the storm about 1,900 nautical miles from Perth, Australia. Badly injured, Tomy had to wait 72 hours at the sea for help to arrive.
Talking about his ordeal, the naval officer said his training in the Navy greatly helped him psychologically.
“It is the will to survive that matters. People don’t die because of injuries…they don’t die because of all these reasons. They die because they lose the will to survive. But they (the training) don’t teach you how to get that will to survive but you get a lot experience just by being in the Navy to survive these things,” he said. PTI
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