The men’s Long Jump and women’s High Jump events provided a lot of excitement on Day 2 of the Muller Anniversary Games formerly known as the London Grand Prix, and the 11th leg of the IAAF Diamond League series.
African Record holder and reigning World Champion in the men’s Long Jump, Luvo Manyonga had an exciting day on the field.
The 27-year old recorded an opening jump of 8.16m but wasted no time in smashing the former Meeting Record (MR) of 8.45m set by Mitchell Watt in 2011, on his second attempt, which landed in 8.51m. He bettered the mark to 8.53m on his third jump, and extended it to 8.58m on his fourth.
His fifth and sixth attempts landed at 8.43m, before calling it a day. His winning mark was a Season’s Best (SB), thus inspiring a 1-2 for South Africa as Ruswahl Samaai also soared to an SB of 8.42m. Jarrion Lawson was 3rd in an SB of 8.25m.
Meanwhile women’s High Jump Champion Mariya Lasitskene bounced back to winning ways after Mirela Demireva put an end to her winning streak that had extended to 45 consecutive wins – in Rabat.
The event in London turned out to be a two-horse race between Italy’s Elena Vallortigara and Lasitskene as the Italian athlete went on to surpass her own expectations, first with a Personal Best (PB) of 2.00m, before bettering the mark to 2.02m to finish in 2nd place.
Lasitskene was the last woman standing as she equalled her World Lead (WL) of 2.04m, set earlier in Paris. Vashti Cunningham and Morgan Lake both cleared 1.91m in 3rd place.
Sandra Perkovic extended her winning streak to 22 consecutive wins with her best throw of 67.24m in the women’s Discus event. Incidentally, that was Perkovic’s only legal throw of the day as she was fouled on all five remaining attempts.
Cuba’s duo of Yaime Perez and Denia Cabellero followed with 64.63m and 63.91m respectively.
