JOHANNESBURG – South African superstar Luvo Manyonga continues to shift the barriers in horizontal jumps after he set a new African indoor record at a Metz indoor meeting on Sunday evening.
Manyonga set a new South African indoor long-jump record for a third time in a week with a jump of 8.40m.
His leap was eight centimetres further than the African record Ignisious Gaisah set in 2006.
It is the third time in a week that Manyonga has shifted the South African indoor barrier – first improving on the mark jointly held by Khotso Mokoena and Ruswahl Samaai at a Paris meeting a week ago at his first indoor event.
Last week he added 14 centimetres to the previous record with the first attempt of 8.23m, before landing an 8.32m jump.
He has broken the South African outdoor record twice in 2017 boasting a personal best of 8.65m at the national championships in Potchefstroom in April.
His national and continental outdoor record launched him into 11th place on the world all-time list.
Manyonga completed a winning streak over a full calendar year over 10 meetings before finishing the year off with the Diamond League Trophy in the long jump.
The long-jump phenom’s jump marked the seventh time in as many days that South Africans have posted indoor records.
Star distance athlete Dominique Scott-Efurd set a second national record in a week, this time lowering her national 1500m indoor mark.
Scott-Efurd placed fourth at the Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Sunday, posting a time of four minutes, 07.25 seconds (4:07.25) shaving three seconds off the previous mark she set in 2017.
This follows a week after she smashed her own South African 3 000m indoor record at the Millrose Games in New York with a time of 8:41.18.
Her run on Sunday was the fourth South African indoor record to tumble over the last week.
Top female sprinter Carina Horn set a new South African 60m indoor record posting a time of 7.10 seconds at the Val d’Oise Meeting Eaubonne, France on Friday.
She knocked 0.05 off the record Wendy Hartmann clocked in 1999 in Maebashi, Japan.
The joint-South African 100m record holder posted a fast 7.16 in her heat, which was just 0.01 slower than Hartmann’s mark.
“The fact that I managed to improve on my best time in the semi-finals really motivated me,” the TuksAthletics athlete said.
“To be able to run even faster in the final means that the long hard hours are paying dividends.
“I must be doing something right, but I know I am capable of running even faster times. I guess I just need to be patient and focus on doing the small things right, and then it will happen.”
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