PE star praised for indoor silver medal in long jump
ATHLETICS South Africa president Aleck Skhosana has congratulated star long jumper Luvo Manyonga on his silver medal achieved at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England.
Port Elizabeth-based Manyonga was the best South African team performer on Friday, day two, securing the silver medal with a best leap of 8.44m.
This added four centimetres to his own African record – and it fell just 2cm short of Cuban gold medallist Juan Miguel Echevarria.
It was South Africa’s first medal at the biennial indoor championships since 2010.
“Congratulations to Manyonga,” Skhosana said.
“It is a wonderful achievement to pick up our first indoor medal after eight years.
“Never for one moment have we ever thought the indoors were going to be easy. Even our usual medal-performing athletes have found the competition a challenge.
“We, however, continue to have high expectations of our athletes, even though we recognise all the hard work that has been put in by each member still in the competition.”
The remaining members of the SA team struggled to mount a challenge for the podium in a tough long jump battle, with Ruswahl Samaai taking sixth place (8.05m) and Khotso Mokoena ending 14th (7.53m).
On the track, Carina Horn put up a fight, but missed out on the 60m women’s final by the narrowest of margins.
After taking second place in her heat in the morning session, she went on to finish third in her semifinal – in 7.18, just 0.01 outside a spot in the medal decider.
Dominique Scott-Efurd also delivered a brave effort, turning out in two middle-distance events.
Having taken ninth place in the 3 000m women’s final on the opening day of the championships, in clocking 8:59.93 – she finished fourth in her 1 500m heat, on day two, crossing the line in 4:09.8 and missing out on the final. – Athletics SA