Rio beckons for Hudson and Jim at sailing world champs
South Africa's Olympic sailors Roger Hudson and Asenathi Jim are putting the final touches to their preparations ahead of Sunday's ISAF World Championships in Santander, Spain.
FILE PICTURE: Jim Asenathi and Roger Hudson of South Africa compete in the Men’s 470 Sailing on Day 7 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Weymouth & Portland Venue at Weymouth Harbour on August 3, 2012 in Weymouth, England. (Photo by Richard Langdon/Getty Images)
The Championships, held every four years, brings together all Olympic classes in a single competition and will act as one of three Olympic qualifiers for Rio 2016.
With 1,400 sailors from 95 countries represented, the going will be tough for Hudson and Jim, but they are relishing the challenge ahead of them.
“We are feeling very fit and ready for all conditions. We’ve had a really busy and good 2014 season so far and made a lot of progress in terms of both results and speed/skills,” Hudson said.
“Our world ranking is currently 19th and we would love to out-perform that ranking at this event. This is the first of three opportunities to qualify the country for Rio 2016 and to do that here by achieving a top-13 country performance would be a dream, but would also require another significant breakthrough performance from us.
The duo will be going all out to secure an Olympic spot, competing in 11 races between September 14 – 20.
Also part of the SA team in Spain are Graeme Wilcox and Andrew Tarboton (49er class) and Stefano Marcia (Laser class).
– Sapa
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