No hullaballoo from Mr Nice Guy

04 October 2015 - 02:00 By DAVID ISAACSON

Anaso Jobodwana looked as if he wanted to throttle himself out of sheer embarrassment as he enquired about a sponsored car this week. The 200m world championship bronze medallist has the composure and chutzpah to compete alongside Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin on the track, but he nearly melted at the Audi dealership in East London.Ryk Neethling, the swimming star-turned manager, had arranged for US-based Jobodwana to use the vehicle while he's home for the next couple of weeks."I don't know how to do this [ask a stranger for a car]," he admitted as he walked onto the showroom floor.When approached by one employee, Jobodwana clasped his hands around his neck awkwardly and quietly explained that he wanted to find out if a car had been organised for him - he did so without trumpeting his name or his achievement.story_article_left1The employee, knowing nothing about the deal, walked over to speak to the head manager, while the sheepish Jobodwana hung back.The manager listened, glanced across at the sprinter, pointed at him and told his colleague: "Do you know how fast this man is?" Then he beamed.As shy as Jobodwana is off the track, he possesses an iron will and he isn't scared to talk up when he feels the need to.In Beijing he was the one who publicly stated that communication between Athletics SA and the athletes had been poor, saying they had not been told they were fielding a 4x100m relay until they got to China.He was just as outspoken with some teachers when he was a pupil at Selborne school, he said.Success for the 23-year-old started long before he won an athletics scholarship to the US in 2011; it is based on his long-standing work ethic, training even during school holidays.His parents's three-bedroom house sits on a hill in Phakamisa township, on the outskirts of King William's Town, overlooking lush green pastures typical of the rural Eastern Cape.There's a street that goes straight up that hill, on which he spent many hours powering nearly 100m against gravity at top speed.Other times he travelled an hour into town to work out, taking five minutes to run to the taxi stop, then 25 minutes for the stop-start lift to the rank, and half-an-hour's walk to the loose tar track.He would train for up to three hours, including a gym session, and then trek back again.The road to success is tough.Jobodwana, who clocked a 19.87sec SA record finishing third at the world championships, is analysing how he can go even faster.He covered the first 100m in Beijing in 10.29sec, compared to Bolt's 10.02 and Gatlin's 10.09. Right there, he points out, are 14-hundredths of a second he should be able to shave off.The plan is to get his 100m personal best, at 10.10, even lower, preferably to under 10 seconds. On the third 50m Jobodwana went 4.69, fractionally slower than Gatlin's 4.68 and one-tenth behind Bolt's 4.59.The final 50m was a different story, however, with Jobodwana registering 4.89 - faster than Gatlin (4.99) and even Bolt (4.94). "But Bolt is slowing down, so that doesn't count," he quickly explained with a smile.Our lunch at a family restaurant in King went uninterrupted until a mother approached gingerly and asked if the athlete would have a photo taken with her son and daughter.story_article_right2As they posed the chuffed boy turned to his idol: "I'm super-fast." "You're going to be fast," Jobodwana smiled back.The penny dropped for other diners, and they came over to meet Phakamisa's newest hero.By contrast, Jobodwana walked through the Port Elizabeth airport early that morning unrecognised, though he was taken aback by a headline in a local newspaper being read by an oblivious fellow traveller, "I can beat Bolt - SA athlete"."Oh, no," Jobodwana cringed. "That's not what I said. I said an athlete can't limit himself by saying he can't beat someone in a race ... but I didn't mean I'm going to beat Bolt."People will think I've got a big head now."Perhaps, but only until they meet him in the flesh.sports@timesmedia.co.za..

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