Sailors Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson went from placing 213 in the world to number 10 in less than two years.
|||Cape Town - THE chances of Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson ever meeting were slim, never mind the pair qualifying for last year’s Olympics together in record time – and going from placing 213 in the world to number 10 in less than two years.
The unexpected alliance had its roots in a visit Jim, affectionately known as Squirrel, paid to his mother, Wendy Jim, in Redhill near Simon’s Town when he was just 10, making the trip from the Eastern Cape with his grandfather.
He was offered the chance to learn to sail at the Izivunguvungu Foundation for Youth, a sailing school in Simon’s Town founded by former Olympian Ian Ainslie, and the bug bit quickly.
“It just took me. The more I sailed, the more I wanted to do it,” Jim told Weekend Argus this week.
Hudson first took notice of Jim when he won the U18 National Sailing Championships for three consecutive years, the first time when he was just 15 years old. Hudson’s family had started the Race Ahead foundation to form an infrastructure and support network for youngsters from non-sailing backgrounds.
But how do you get from there to Olympic standard?
Jim said he had always dreamt of competing in the Olympics, but that when the dream started to become a distinct possibility, he thought about it every day.
Hudson, who has been around boats and water his entire life, has always had the Olympics as an ultimate goal.
Everything has to be “just right” to launch an Olympic campaign, however, and it would never have happened for him without Race Ahead.
Last year, the pair became world champions in the SB20 class and finished 26th out of 27 at the London event in the 470 class, but now they have the 2016 Olympics in their sights.
The pair had trained together for less than a year – most athletes train for at least a decade – when they found themselves on the starting line in London. They had been told that it was an impossible venture, but with strength and perseverance, they proved everyone wrong.
It wasn’t about where they finished, but that they got to start at all.
With the Rio Olympics in their sights now, Jim and Hudson are aiming to place in the top 10 – and are crossing their fingers that they’ll bring home a medal for South Africa – something that’s never been achieved by a South African sailing team.
Over the
past few years they’ve competed locally, and abroad in Europe and the US. And their achievements are carefully recorded by Wendy Jim. She is her son’s biggest supporter, and her kitchen wallpaper is a giant collage of pictures and articles from his impressive sailing career.
They insist that while there’s no money in sailing, their passion offers them a lifestyle they would never swop. They are funded by sponsorships and donations, and the pair say that without these, they’d have no career.
There is some play, however, between plenty of hard work, but definitely no money for any extravagances.
But the two admit that when they qualified for last year’s Olympics, they were adamant that they deserved to celebrate. And since they were passing through France, what better way to do it than drinking Champagne in Champagne?
Their sailing careers are taking them across the globe. But ask them where they would go if they could travel anywhere, and their answer is: “To Rio, definitely to Rio.”
Weekend Argus