Manyonga keeps SA’s flag flying
● Luvo Manyonga the dependable did it again yesterday.
The world long-jump champion scored another Diamond League triumph but the rest of the South African brigade in action in Birmingham failed to make an impression.
African and Commonwealth Games champion Akani Simbine, after winning his 100m heat in 10.07sec, slowed to 10.09 in the final. World championship silver medallist Christian Coleman of the US won in 9.94sec, a fraction ahead of Briton Reece Prescod, who was credited with the same time.
Noah Lyles, the fastest man over 200m this year, was third in 9.98 after a late surge.
Simbine had a decent start but he never got into the race, finishing sixth behind fourth-placed Yohan Blake of Jamaica (9.99) and Britain’s Zharnel Hughes (10.05).
It’s been a long season for SA’s athletes, many of whom competed at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April and then the continental championships recently. Perhaps it’s taken its toll.
Manyonga seems unaffected, however. The 27-year-old cracked an 8.53m meet record to take a comfortable victory in the long jump, but even his second and thirdbest efforts, of 8.47 in the sixth round and 8.42 in his opening jump would have been good enough for the win.
Jamaican Tajay Gayle on 8.17 was his nearest rival and compatriot Zarck Visser, the silver medallist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, was fourth in 7.90.
It was a good return for Manyonga after finishing second at the African championships in his last outing, and now he is looking to prepare for the lucrative Diamond League final in Zurich on August 30.
“I’m quite happy with that,” said Manyonga, the Olympic silver medallist from 2016. “I was surprised that it was a meeting record and it shows I’m in good shape. I will go back home now and prepare for the finals in the coming weeks.”
The long jump in Birmingham was not part of the Diamond Race, but Manyonga had already qualified for the Zurich final with three victories from four meets.
Also eligible for Switzerland is the man Manyonga has struggled to beat this season, 20-year-old Cuban newcomer Juan Miguel Echevarria, owner of the 8.68m world lead. That’s 10 centimetres further than Manyonga’s season’s best, and three better than his SA record from April 2017.
The only other men to beat Manyonga in serious competition this year — countryman Ruswahl Samaai and Olympic champion Jeff Henderson — are also in the mix.
Dominique Scott ran a season’s best 9min 01.64sec in the 3,000m, but was still last, nearly 30 seconds behind Agnes Tirop of Kenya. Wenda Nel’s poor form of the past several weeks continued in the 400m hurdles, and Antonio Alkana (110m hurdles) and Ncincilili Titi (100m) failed to advance beyond the heats of their events.