Luvo Manyonga continued his rise in international athletics when he leapt to within two centimetres of Khotso Mokoena’s national long jump record with a maiden Diamond League victory in Brussels on Friday evening.
Manyonga and Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya were the standout South African performers in the final leg of the Diamond League series.
While Manyonga landed a new personal best of 8.48 metres, Semenya raced to victory in her first 400m race in a major competition.
The Olympic 800m champion clocked a life-time best running a measured race surging on the home straight crossing the line in a time of 50.40 seconds beating a host of sub-50 second runners.
The two-lap specialist dropped down in distance shaving 0.34s off her previous best she posted at the national championships in Stellenbosch in April.
Crossing the line in first place Semenya won her 22nd individual race of the season over 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m demonstrating her incredible versatility.
Compatriot Tsholofelo Thipe was the only athlete that has managed to beat Semenya this year when she beat her in a meeting Pretoria in March.
Slow out of the blocks compared to the specialist sprinters, Semenya produced her customary kick moving from fifth place with 50 metres to go crossing the line in first place before crashing to the track.
The night belonged to Manyonga, who did not only landed the second best jump ever by a South African long jumper but also demonstrated consistency in his preceding attempts.
Manyonga launched himself into first place with his first attempt of 8.24m and with every follow up jump he further cemented his lead on the rest of the field.
The 24-year-old improved his previous best which was his silver-medal jump from the Rio Olympic Games by 11 centimetres edging him closer to Mokoena’s national and continental mark from 2009.
Manyonga’s coach Neil Cornelius said his charge had told him in the buildup to the meeting he would launch a big jump in Brussels.
“When I spoke to him before he jumped he was unbelievably positive, he was full of confidence telling me ‘coach, watch me’,” Cornelius said.
Cornelius said this was only the beginning of bigger things to come for the prodigal athlete finishing the year on a high.
“When I started coaching him last year I knew he had it in him but to actually see it happening is quite amazing,” Cornelius said.
“We just need to keep on doing what we are doing, Luvo has only been with me for one year. One year’s pre-season, one year’s conditioning, and one year’s speed and technique. So he can still improve.”
Manyonga has set his sights on American Mike Powell’s long-standing world record of 8.95m he set 25 years ago in Tokyo.
No athlete has come close to that distance for more than two decades with American Dwight Phillips’ 8.74m from 2009 the only jump this century featuring in the top-10 distances of all time.
“Luvo can get so much stronger, faster, and further and all he needs is more conditioning while I am quite happy with the improvements in his technique,” Cornelius said.
“He tends to go into the landing position too soon which is something we worked on before Brussels and I could see he is already better with his landing.”
The Brussels Diamond League meeting was also the final appearance for women’s 400m hurdler Wenda Nel and joint female 100m record holder Carina Horn.
Horn finished fifth in the short sprint with a time of 11.14 seconds with Olympic champion Elaine Thompson winning in 10.72s.
Nel crossed the line in sixth place in a time of 55.41s behind American winner Cassandra Tate, who clocked a time of 54.47s.
Independent Media