Santosh out of medically induced coma; Noah finishes 20th at Dakar
NEW DELHI: CS Santosh, who had crashed out of the 2021 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia last week, is out of medically induced coma after being brought back to India on Thursday.
“CS Santosh was transferred by air ambulance from Riyadh to Bengaluru on Thursday without any issues,” Santosh’s team Hero Motosports said in a statement on Friday after the 43rd Dakar Rally ended. “As per the latest information, he has been brought out of the induced coma successfully. He is now receiving the next stage of treatment and continues to be in CCU (Critical Care Unit) for observation.”
Participating in his seventh Dakar, Santosh, 37, was on way to delivering his best result until a crash in the fourth stage. Despite lack of bike-time last year due to the pandemic, Santosh was 43rd, 36th and 34th after three stages with his confidence, navigation and rhythm better than previous years. Santosh has completed the Dakar thrice with his best result coming in 2018 when he finished 34th. It was then best by an Indian till Friday when Harit Noah ended 20th.
Three days ago, the medical team overlooking felt Santosh was stable enough to be sent to India in a “sleeping state”.
In 2019, when the rally was held in South America, Santosh had crashed and suffered a concussion. Last year, the team decided to pull out from the rally after Santosh’s teammate Paulo Goncalves died from injuries sustained during a fall in the seventh stage.
Meanwhile, in only his second Dakar after crashing out last year, Noah registered a first in Indian motorsports by finishing 20th. The rider from Kerala became the third Indian after Santosh and KP Aravind to complete the two-week long rally, which shifted from South America to Saudi Arabia last year. This edition began and ended in Jeddah. Divided into 12 stages, the course ran 7,646km of which 4,767km was competitive.
Since inception in 1978 till 2014, there was no Indian participation. In 2015, Santosh entered as a privateer and finished 36th. Aravind was the second Indian to finish the rally, in Peru in 2019. Noah, who participated in the Dakar for Sherco, finished in 54 hours, 58 minutes and five seconds. It was 7:39:51 seconds behind Moto (bike) category winner Kevin Benavides. Debutant Ashish Raorane, taking part as a privateer, was the third Indian at Dakar 2021. His campaign ended in Stage 5.