Gold and bronze as SA athletes overcome the odds
LONDON: A boyhood rivalry reached a fantastic crescendo as Luvo Manyonga and Ruswahl Samaai shared a podium at the pinnacle of their sport at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday.
Manyonga produced a brilliant gold-medal performance, with Samaai playing a supporting role in a glittering South African long jump performance to win the bronze medal at the World Championships.
“Luvo was a drug addict, he just came back and won a freaking gold medal at the world championships, and that is an amazing story. I had to walk 10km to the track and back every single day,” Samaai said.
Manyonga and Samaai grew up 10km from each other in Paarl, and the long jump provided the escape route from an environment rife with drugs and gang-related violence.
At the one end, Samaai had to navigate the harsh realities of life in Amstelhof, while Manyonga faced the same life in Mbekweni.
Samaai dedicated Saturday’s double haul to the kids with the odds stacked against them, but who dared to dream.
“We represent so many people who believe in us, and so many children out there who are looking for an escape,” Samaai said.
For Manyonga, the victory meant he could finally close the book on a past that has been haunting him since 2012, when he received an 18-month ban for the use of a recreational drug.
“I feel awesome, it is a great feeling to be the world champion; now I don’t think about what happened in the past, I just think about tomorrow,” Manyonga said.
He produced his winning jump of 8.48 metres on his second attempt, but had flashes of déjà vu from the Rio Olympic Games, where he missed out on the title by one centimetre.
“It was very emotional, and memories of last year came back into my mind and I was thinking what happened in Rio was going to happen again,” he said. “But thank God it didn’t happen at these championships.”
As the competition progressed, American horizontal jumper Jarrion Lawson chipped away at Manyonga’s lead, but his final leap of 8.44m was only good enough for the silver.