South Africa Fields News Team for 470 Junior Worlds
Asenathi Jim (aka Squirrel) and Roger Hudson have been the face of 470 sailing for the past few years, and represented South Africa at the 2012 Olympic Games in Weymouth.
But back home in South Africa, there is a major programme taking place to prepare the next generation of 470 talent, and we are delighted that Sibu Sizatu will be partnering with Asenathi Jim for the 470 Junior World Championships in La Rochelle, France. Jim and Hudson will then return to their combination for the 470 Worlds.
Sibu Sizatu has been selected by RaceAhead as Asenathi Jim’s team mate for the 2013 Junior (u-21) World and European Championships in France and Wales respectively. Sibu is 21 years old and learned to sail (like Asenathi) at the Izivunguvungu school in Simonstown. He is 180 cm tall and weighs 71kg.
Sibu started training with RaceAhead in 2010 in the roles of 420 helmsman and crew and was also a member of the SB20 training squad in 2010 and 2011. Sibu committed to the RaceAhead 470 training squad in September 2012 and has completed a total of 85 training sessions with the 470 squad since then. In early 2013 the potential crews to join Asenathi at the 2013 u-21 470 events were narrowed down to 2 candidates: Sibu Sizatu and Josh Rubenstein, 19 years old, from Cape Town. Sibu and Josh contested a final trial consisting of over 100 twenty-minute races and 10 sixty-minute races in Simonstown between June 22 and July 7. Ultimately Sibu won the trial by a small margin and is delighted to be joining the RaceAhead 470 team of Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson for the upcoming 2 month tour to France and the UK where RaceAhead will compete at a total of 5 events including the two u-21 470 Championships.
Our greatest congratulations to Sibu on his enormous commitment, effort and resilience over the past 9 months which have won him this selection.
RaceAhead also would like to thank and congratulate Josh Rubenstein on his huge effort over the same period and on his massive improvement in his sailing skills. Josh is still very young and is fast developing into a sophisticated sailor and the RaceAhead team looks forward to selecting him for major international events in the future.
Image: Asenathi Jim, Roger Hudson and Sibu Sizatu
14/7/2013 13:18
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