Since winning Silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Luvo Manyonga has come in leaps and bound, and on Friday the South African broke the African men’s Long Jump record, winning with a staggering mark of 8.62m at the Athletics Gauteng North (AGN) Championships in Tshwane in Pretoria.
Just 11 days ago, Manyonga recorded the farthest jump in the world this year leaping a distance of 8.46m in Bloemfontein, before that he had jumped an astonishing 8.72m which was ruled out for a foul after it emerged that he had stepped over the plasticine by 2cm.
However, he has come back to show that it wasn’t a fluke and that he is capable of jumping that far, adding 14cm to his previous Personal Best (PB) of 8.48m which he achieved at the Brussels Diamond League in 2016.
Interestingly, Manyonga takes over from his compatriot Khotso Mokoena who initially held the African Record (AR) of 8.50m, which was also a South African Record.
With this mark, Mayonga has now moved up to joint 12th in the all-time list, an honour he shares with James Beckford. This year he leads with two of the farthest jumps in the world, with the closest jumper to him being Uruguay’s Emiliano Lasa who has a mark of 8.19m.
There is a possibility that Manyonga will strongly challenge for the world title in London, and with the experience garnered in Brazil where he narrowly missed winning the GOLD medal, he must have learned some tips on how to land the top prize.
Do you know: Manyonga made our list of top 10 African athletes in 2016 where he placed 10th? If he continues like this through out the year, who knows he might just earn a spot in the top 3 when our rankings are released by the end of the year.
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