Asenathi’s Olympic reality

SAILING INTO A DREAM

WHEN Asenathi Jim dropped out of school hoping for a R100-a-day job, little did he know his decision would take him around the world as a sailor and win him a spot at the 2012 London Olympics.

The prospect of working at a construction firm seemed better than persevering with his education where he had needed a few attempts just to pass Grade 9.

He told his friend and sailing mentor Roger Hudson of his decision during training at a yacht club in Simonstown, where Hudson and his father, Dave, a 1992 Olympic sailor, run their RaceAhead programme with talented but underprivileged yachtsmen.

Jim was one of them. He was 11 when he got his first taste of the sport. He was on holiday from Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape and visiting his mother who worked in Cape Town.

He went for a sail on a yacht with Izivungu club, run by former Olympian sailor Ian Ainslie, and he was hooked.

“I just loved being in the ocean. I didn’t care that I couldn’t swim at the time,” says Jim, who is known as Squirrel.

Jim asked his mother to stay on

Hudson had always believed Jim was of Olympic material, but he had been thinking 2016 and beyond.

When Jim dropped out of school Hudson asked him what he wanted to do. He said his dream

“was to be an Olympic sailor… he was willing to put in the hard work required.”

Hudson jumped at the chance to get them to the London Games.

That was January last year. “We had 18 months to try and qualify, while most teams prepare over four years,” says Hudson, who drew up a frantic racing schedule.

They raced in 20 events around the globe in a campaign that cost a little more than R1m.

They qualified last month, at the world championships in Spain. “It was emotional. When I told my dad we had qualified he cried. You spend your life dreaming about these things,” recalls Hudson.

At 20, Jim is one of the youngest helmsmen in the Olympic field of 27.

“I believe Asenathi can win a medal in the future, at 2016 or 2020,” says 34-year-old Hudson.