470 Worlds. Day 4. 14th for Asenathi & Sibu

Asenathi Jim and Sibu Sizatu in amongst the best 470 sailors in the world.
pic by International 470 Class Association / Nikos Alevromytis

When the thermal breeze kicks in, it usually does so with certainty, but all change today as the wind filled into a shorter window than usual, forcing the Race Committee to abandon race 9 for the men and women gold fleets.

Teams were postponed ashore until around 15h00, before being released to the race track for a 16h00 start. So, just one race for the gold fleet, with the silver achieving two.

New faces and future stars have punched high and made themselves known in every single race. No exception to this has been the performance of the young South African team of Asenathi Jim and Sibu Sizatu who finished with a good 14th position to put them 22nd overall after 8 races. Their overall result is not what they are wanting, as their dream result is a top 10 finish overall, while a top 20 overall would still be good.

This is a brief report from their coach and mentor Roger Hudson who was out on the water watching them.

“The boys are hanging in really well. The pace of the Gold Fleet is ferocious and ever increasing. The midway gate-roundings here are some of the most congested and intense I have ever seen.

“We’ve raced this Gold series mostly in 8 – 10 knot winds which is Oscar Positive (free pumping) for 470s, so the physicality and technicality has been extremely high, both upwind and downwind.

“The guys have made very courageous starts throughout, but a quick shift in the breeze or one bad call and you get dumped very hard behind the line of boats – that’s Gold Fleet racing.

“I’m proud of how the guys are standing up so far, especially today (day 4) to hold on for a 14th.

“We’ve got 3 races today (Friday) and we’re going to need to show some serious ‘steel’ to close out the result that we want”.

Unfortunately our women’s team of Tammy Holden and Lea Smit are battling in the intense competition.

Results – Men HERE 470 worlds 2017 RESULTS overall-men (1)

Results – Women HERE 470 worlds 2017 Results overall-women (1)

Check Also

“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. Dudley Dix Describes ‘The Storm’

by Richard Crockett A few weeks back I shared a feature that Dudley Dix had …