A HAMPSHIRE sailor has been honoured with a prestigious award for saving the life of a fellow yachtsman in a daring Southern Ocean rescue.
Mike Golding was awarded the silver medal award from the Royal Humane Society for rescuing Gosport sailor Alex Thomson from his stricken yacht.
The pair had been competing in the single-handed Velux 5 Oceans race, when, during a leg from Bilbao in Spain to Freemantle in Australia, Thomson's yacht suffered a major structural failure.
More than 1,000 miles from the southern tip of South Africa, Thomson found himself in the grip of the treacherous Southern Ocean.
His nearest competitor - Southampton's Golding - was over 80 miles away.
After hearing Thomson was in trouble, Golding immediately abandoned racing and turned round to answer the distress call.
The 57-year-old battled his Open 60 yacht Ecover nearly 90 miles upwind through huge seas to reach Thomson.
The subsequent rescue took over two hours.
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