Luvo Manyonga (TuksAthletics) is going to shift the boundaries of South African long jumping was Lee-Roy Newton his agent prediction a few days ago. That was exactly what he did yesterday when he jumped 8.62 metres at the Gauteng North Championships at the University of Pretoria.
The Tuks athlete’s winning jump is 12 centimetres further than the African and South African record set by Khotso Mokoena in 2009 in Berlin. It is also one of the 12th best jumps of all time.
Manyonga made it clear that he is capable of jumping much further. In fact he has his sights firmly set on the world record of 8.95 metres set by Mike Powell (USA) in 1991 in Tokyo. According to him it is high time that somebody improves on it.
“It has been way to long since anybody has come close to jumping nine metres. It is something I want to rectify. I know that I am capable of jumping much further but I don’t want to set a date to when I am going to do so. All I am prepared to say is that no record should last for ever. I fully realize that the record I set today (Friday) is going to be improved at some stage by a young talented athlete. And I will be happy for whoever does so because that is how it works in athletics.”
Neil Cornelius (TuksAthletics coach) battled to find the right words to describe Manyonga’s jump.
“I knew Luvo was going to improve on Khotso’s record but I expected it to be by just a centimetre or two. Not in my wildest imagination did I think he will do so by 12 centimetres. That jump of his was ‘flippen amazing’. Really . . . really far. Luvo has in fact equalled the Commonwealth record set by James Beckford (Jamaica) in 1997.
“You should see the video that somebody took of me just after Luvo’s amazing leap. I was totally out of control. I just could not help myself because I was so excited.”
Cornelius advice to Manyonga just before he got ready for his first attempt was: “Just make sure that it counts because with one good jump you gain five more attempts.”
Manyonga did better than that. He jumped 8.62m. Actually he was again “Mr Consistency” as he had been two weeks ago when he jumped 8.46m in Bloemfontein. His second attempt was measured at 8.29 metres followed by two jumps of 8.34metres. He then called it quits because he was hindered by a slight ankle strain.
“It is nothing serious we just did not want to take any unnecessary risks especially since Luvo has achieved what he set out to do and that was to improve the record,” explained Cornelius.
Manyonga will only be in action one more time in South Africa. It will be at next month’s South African Championships in Potchefstroom. He has already been invited to compete at the Shanghai Diamond League Meeting.
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