An all-Filipino crew is set to make history in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race

SYDNEY (AP) — There have been plenty of “firsts” in the history of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race which was first held in 1945. An all-Filipino crew of 15 sailors will make it another when the annual ocean classic begins in Sydney on Thursday.

With veteran sailor Ernesto Echauz at the helm, Centennial 7 will embark on the 628-nautical mile (722 miles, 1,160 kilometers) race. One of six international entrants out of the more than 100-strong fleet, Centennial 7’s crew comprises sailors from the Philippines’ national team and the Philippines navy.

The boat itself is no stranger to the race. Previously, the TP52 yacht was known as Celestial and claimed the Sydney to Hobart overall handicap victory in 2022 under Sam Haynes after being runner-up the year before.

When shipping their own boat from the Philippines proved too difficult, Haynes helped keep the dream alive by selling Celestial to Echauz in September. Haynes will still contest the Sydney-Hobart race on board a new Celestial.

“I never knew that it was going to be this boat,” Echauz told Australian Associated Press. "We acquired Celestial right away because we were told that it’s ready to do the Sydney to Hobart.

“We went through the paperwork, and the most important thing is to be able to get the whole crew, 15 Filipinos. They got surprised that, hey, we’re going to bring all of the Filipinos. It’s a dream come true for all of us. We never expected that we’ll be able to join.”

The race takes the yachts down the New South Wales state south coast, across the often notorious Bass Strait and to the island state of Tasmania, ending in the state capital Hobart after sailing the last portion of the race on the Derwent River.

:Last year, LawConnect won line honors i n the 78th edition of the Sydney to Hobart, holding off defending champion Andoo Comanche by less than a minute in an exciting finish between the super maxis. The pair of 100-foot yachts had dueled for much of the race and were well ahead of the rest of the fleet of 103 yachts that started last year’s race.

LawConnect, which was runner-up in the last three editions of the race, finished in 1 day, 19 hours, 3 minutes, 58 seconds. Comanche’s time was 1 day, 19 hours, 4 minutes, 49 seconds — a margin of just 51 seconds.

It was the second-closest finish in Sydney to Hobart history after Condor of Bermuda beat Apollo by seven seconds in 1982. Comanche holds the race record of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds, set when it won the race in 2017.

Echauz’s crew in March finished second by five minutes to rivals Happy Go in a close finish to the China Sea Race, after claiming line honors on board Centennial 5 last year.

“We’ve been sailing with each other for years, for decades,” Echauz said. “They are dinghy sailors. Eventually, when we started sailing big boats, we would sail together. We’ve been sailing in Hong Kong, which is the sailing center for Asia for big boats, but the standard here is a way, way different. It’s a completely different level.”

The crew placed 12th overall in the Cabbage Tree Island Race near Sydney earlier this month, their first race in Australian waters.

“We just want to finish it. Just finish well, and hopefully nothing breaks and hopefully nobody gets hurt and we don’t make any mistakes,” Echauz said.

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Skipper of Philippines entry Centennial, Ernesto Echauz, center, gestures with his crew ahead of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race in Sydney, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (Salty Dingo via AP)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States and the United Kingdom have expressed concern over convictions imposed by Pakistani military courts to 25 civilian supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan over their alleged involvement in riots last year.

The convictions had previously also been criticized by the European Union and domestic human rights activists.

“The United States is deeply concerned that Pakistani civilians have been sentenced by a military tribunal for their involvement in protests on May 9, 2023. These military courts lack judicial independence, transparency, and due process guarantees,” the State Department said in a statement on Monday.

It asked Pakistan to respect the right to a fair trial and due process.

The Foreign Office in London said that while the U.K. respects Pakistan’s sovereignty over its own legal proceedings, “trying civilians in military courts lacks transparency, independent scrutiny and undermines the right to a fair trial.”

It added: "We call on the government of Pakistan to uphold its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

The statements were referring to the violence that erupted after Khan’s arrest in Islamabad in May 2023.

The former premier was ousted through a no-confidence vote in the parliament in 2022, and he was convicted of corruption and sentenced in August 2023. Since then, he has been behind bars. Khan’s popular opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, is in talks with the government to secure his release.

Responding to the growing international criticism, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday that the country is "fully committed to fulfilling all its international human rights obligations.”

In a statement, it said Pakistan’s legal system was in consistent with international human rights law, and the verdicts by the military courts had been made under a law enacted by the parliament and in line with the judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

It said Pakistan will “continue to engage with the international partners, including the European Union to uphold the international human rights law, without any discrimination and double standards.”

The 25 supporters on Monday received prison terms ranging from two years to 10 years, which the army in a statement warned acted as a “stark reminder” for people to never take the law into their own hands.

The PTI has rejected the convictions of civilians, demanding they should be tried in the normal courts if they were involved in the riots.

Without mentioning international criticism of the convictions, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday accused the PTI of “hiring foreign lobbying groups to run campaigns against Pakistan."

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has accused Khan of masterminding the violence, a charge he denies.

Earlier this month, Khan and dozens of others were indicted by a civilian court on charges of inciting people on that day, when demonstrators attacked the military’s headquarters in Rawalpindi, stormed an air base in Mianwali in the eastern Punjab province and torched a building housing state-run Radio Pakistan in the northwest.

FILE - Paramilitary soldiers from Frontier Corps stand guard outside their headquarters, where supporters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan protest against the arrest of their leader, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad, File)