JOHANNESBURG - Catapulting himself into the air moving at full tilt, Luvo Manyonga used to close his eyes out of fear of the landing.
Manyonga has - since his first sessions with coach Neil Cornelius in 2015 - overcome his fears, soaring to Olympic long-jump silver medal and the South African and continental record with his eyes wide open.
“To be honest, Luvo was a little bit scared when he first started with me, he would jump in the air with his eyes closed and he told me ‘coach, I’m afraid of heights’,” Cornelius recalls.
“I told him he had to get over that fear, you have a choice, you can be scared of heights or how far you can jump.
“He started jumping with his eyes open and he started coming right. We had to teach Luvo how to do things right.”
With only four years separating athlete and coach the cynics have always questioned Cornelius’ ability to mould an athlete like Manyonga.
Ever since Manyonga registered on his radar as a youth athlete, Cornelius has been salivating over the prospect of coaching the former world junior champion.
“When Luvo was 17 years old I heard this story about this youth boy that could jump 7.50m, the next year he jumped against one of my athletes, Boipelo ‘Bibs’ Motlhathego, in the triple jump,” Cornelius said.
“I will never forget it, he was competing at the 2009 South African Junior Championships at this track, without any technique he jumped a 15.35m but Bips would go on the win it.”
The following year Manyonga would twice leap over eight metres and claim the World Junior long-jump title.
Five years later Cornelius and Manyonga’s paths would once again cross when the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee were scouting for suitable candidates to mentor Manyonga.
“I’ve always thought that if I can just get the right talent I would be able to do something amazing,” Cornelius said.
“This one day I was busy with my athletes and I see this tall guy walking towards me, and I could see its Luvo smiling saying: ‘coach, I need help, can you coach me?’.
“And that was the start of it all but he needed help at the beginning, two years of doing very little training he did not have the right base.”
Since joining Cornelius’ at the University of Pretoria track, Manyonga has become an inspirational figure in the group.
“He is very trustworthy when it comes to other people, the athletes look up to him, they idolise him, he is a good example, he is friendly and he is humble,” said Cornelius.
“He fulfils the role of an Olympic athlete, that of a brother to the other athletes where he motivates them.
“If you look at the national championships when he made his winning jump before getting injured. He didn’t leave, he stayed to support the other athletes and get the crowd behind them.”