Cape Town - He suffered a shock defeat the SA championships, but Khotso Mokoena is only really starting his countdown to the Rio Olympics in Thursday’s Diamond League meeting in Oslo.
And so too are most of the world’s top competitors in the triple jump, according to Mokoena’s coach Emmarie Fouché.
The 31-year-old Mokoena has enjoyed a stellar career mainly as a long jumper, winning silver medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and world championships a year later in Berlin, while he was also the world indoor champion in 2008 and runner-up in 2010.
He is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion in the triple jump, but now he is gearing up for a big assault on a final Olympic medal in Rio.
Mokoena finished second at the SA championships in April behind Menzi Mthembu, who beat him by 8cm in 16.10m. Mokoena’s 16.02m was well off his season’s best of 16.48m he had set in March, and considerably behind his South African record of 17.35m, which he jumped in 2014.
American Christian Taylor is the dominant force in the event, having won gold at the 2012 London Olympics and at last year’s world championships in Beijing.
Taylor has jumped regularly past the magical 18m barrier, and has already a 2016 best of 17.76m.
But Mokoena is focusing on his own journey. “We will have to see how he goes on Thursday, but I think there have been good changes brought into his (technique). And he will be further down the line in his preparations as he wasn’t so sharp yet (for the nationals) as he is getting ready for Rio. He hadn’t done any speed-work or such sessions at that stage of the season,” Fouché told Independent Media on Wednesday.
“I think there will be progress, I believe so. But I am not with him in Oslo. He doesn’t have any injury problems, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on him as the athletes put enough on themselves.”
Mokoena will face some serious competition on Thursday, with Frenchman Teddy Tamgho the only athlete in the field to have gone past 18m (18.04m). Three others – Omar Craddock of the USA (17.15m), Troy Doris of Guyana (17.18m) and American Chris Benard (17.19m), while Portugal’s Nelson Evora is a world championship bronze medallist from last year.
“I don’t want to predict what kind of distance Khotso will jump in Oslo! But I’m hoping for an improvement from his last jump,” Fouché said. “I think over the last two weeks, he has really trained well and looked much better.
“Most of the guys who are getting ready for Rio are only really starting now with their season, so we can’t look at the distances that have been jumped so far this year.”
Fouché confirmed that Mokoena will concentrate on the triple jump at the Rio Olympics and won’t be participating in the long jump.
Meanwhile, SA 100m champion Henricho Bruintjies came second in a good time of 10.11 at the Josef Odlozil Memorial in Prague on Monday.
Bruintjies, who recorded a wind-assisted 9.89 in Gavardo, Italy two weeks ago, will be pleased with his outing in the Czech Republic as he finished behind Ivory Coast’s Ben Youssef Meité, who ran a new national record of 9.99.
In Montreuil, France on Tuesday, 1 500m star Johan Cronjé placed fourth in 3:37.57, while Nolene Conrad ended seventh in the women’s 5 000m with a time of 16:03.35.
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Independent Media