Yet gold is what he and his skydiving partner, Major Corné Myburgh, achieved when they scooped top position for their two-way formation dive at the SA National Defence Force Parachuting Championship in Tempe, Bloemfontein, last month.
The 26-year-old SA Air Force mechanical engineer took part in his first championship. This was despite having finished only 29 skydives instead of the on-average 130 associated with junior skydivers.
Originally from the KwaZulu-Natal north coast but now based near Pretoria at Air Force Base Waterkloof, Kommal says "everyone was shocked" at his feat.
He also contributed a silver medal for junior group accuracy to his team's overall haul of seven medals.
Kommal credits his success on having a "knack" and his decision to take his skydiving partner's advice to focus on enjoying himself rather than on winning.
"I was like, I'm just going to take part and see how it goes," he says.
"Corné really guided me a lot. He told me to just enjoy it - the moment when you have fun when you're doing something is when you really do your best. The guidance from Major Myburgh really helped me a lot."
He started skydiving in October last year. Kommal says it was "absolutely cold" in the plane from which they jumped. "The plane that we used didn't have a door and the wind that comes rushing in gets so cold that you wake up no matter how sleepy you felt."
He says the scariest part of skydiving comes just before the jump but "the moment you're out, there's no fear."
Myburgh, an aircraft armament fitter at the Air Force who has been skydiving for 25 years, says he spotted Kommal's ability from early on in their training sessions.
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