Luvo Manyonga does it again
World champion in fine form as SA takes three athletics golds
Three South African athletes took victories at the inaugural Athletics World Cup in London, England, at the weekend while five more individuals stepped on the podium in their events.
On Sunday night, long jump world champion Luvo Manyonga was in fine form in his specialist discipline.
With field events athletes limited to four attempts in straight finals, Manyonga was remarkably consistent.
After landing at 8.51m with his first leap, which ultimately secured the win, he went on to jump 8.48m, 8.50m and 8.50m with his remaining efforts.
Earlier, in the 100m women’s hurdles race, in-form national record holder Rikenette Steenkamp bolted over the line to win gold in 12.88sec.
On Saturday’s opening day of competition, Olympic silver medallist Sunette Viljoen won the women’s javelin throw with a 61.69m heave.
In other disciplines, SA champion Luxolo Adams took second place in the men's 200m race in 20.45 and USbased sprinter Derrick Mokaleng grabbed silver in the men’s 400m contest in 45.48. Discus thrower Victor Hogan also took the runner-up spot with a 63.73m heave.
Carina Horn, captain of the SA team, was third in the women’s 100m race in 11.21 and sub-10 speedster Simon Magakwe earned bronze in the men’s short sprint in 10.11.
In relay races, the SA men’s 4x100m quartet – Magakwe, Adams, Antonio Alkana and Roscoe Engel – clocked 38.53 to finish third.
The national men’s 4x400m team – Mokaleng, Thapelo Phora, Pieter Conradie and Zakithi Nene – took second position in 3:01.79, but were later disqualified for a lane violation.
With the SA squad having faced seven other countries at the Athletics World Cup, which used a point-based format to determine the final rankings, SA finished seventh overall.
The United States ended the two-day competition at the top of the standings.
It might have lacked the prestige and visibility of football’s World Cup final earlier in Moscow, hindered by the absence of many of track and field’s most recognisable names and an unfortunate clash of dates with the World Cup final.
Yet reasonable crowds, compared to much of the Diamond League circuit, and a rapid format with audience appeal, is worth extending, according to IAAF president Sebastian Coe, with three nations understood to have expressed interest in staging the next scheduled edition in 2020.
“I’ve been very clear that I want new things to be tried,” he said.
“They are not always going to work out from the word go but that can’t inhibit us from going ‘we tried’.
“There is a lot of work being done on the calendar and the Diamond Leagues. They have already had interest from other cities, but I’m really pleased UK Athletics have taken up the challenge.”–