Luvo leaps to London crown
Luvo Manyonga ruled the sand pit at the London Olympic stadium again on Sunday, grabbing first place in the Anniversary Games ahead of countryman Ruswahl Samaai.
The South African won last year’s world championships in London, as well as the inaugural World Cup the weekend before – and keeps getting better.
He triumphed at the 2017 world championships with an 8.48m effort‚ the World Cup with 8.51m – and on Sunday he launched himself to an 8.58m meet record that also matched his season’s best in May.
“This is like my second home‚ I won the world champs here and it’s a great atmosphere‚” Manyonga‚ 27, said.
“And the platform is nice‚ it feels like the indoor platform and I’m happy with the result.”
The star relocated from Pretoria to Port Elizabeth at the end of last year.
For Samaai‚ the bronze medallist in London last year‚ his 8.42 was a season’s best and equalled the second best leap of his career.
Behind them was the who’s who of long jumping.
Third was the 2017 world championship silver medallist, US star Jarrion Lawson‚ Australia’s Commonwealth Games silver medallist Henry Frayne‚ and Olympic champion Jeff Henderson‚ another American.
This was also Manyonga’s first Diamond League win since winning in Rome nearly two months ago‚ also with an 8.58m jump.
In June, he went through three competitions in a row without victory – his first failures to win outdoors since the 2016 Rio Games.
Each time Cuban teenager Juan Miguel Echevarria finished top of the podium‚ in Stockholm‚ Ostrava and then Bad Langensalza.
At two of those events Echevarria‚ who also got the better of Manyonga at the world indoor championships earlier this year‚ went 8.68 and 8.66‚ further than Manyonga’s 8.65 personal best.
But Manyonga does not believe he and coach Bradley Ag- new need to devise any special plan to battle the new rival for his crown as the world’s best.
“I don’t close any gap on the Cuban‚ I just do my job‚ what I’m supposed to do.
“We just have to meet at work‚ that’s all we can do.”
Samaai‚ the African longjump champion from 2016‚ and runner-up Manyonga return to the continental championships in Nigeria, from August 1 to 5.
But at the end of next month, the duo are scheduled to go up against the Cuban again in the Diamond League long-jump final in Zurich.
Then there will be the 2019 world championships and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – so one of the great rivalries of world track and field awaits.
Earlier‚ Rikenette Steenkamp’s chances of making the 100m hurdles final effectively ended, when she hit the first obstruction in her heat.
“I hit the first hurdle‚ I’ve never done that, but not every race can be good,” she said.
Steenkamp finished fifth in 13.05, with world record-holder Kendra Harrison, of the US, winning in 12.50.
Not even Steenkamp’s 12.88sec World Cup win the week before would have placed her in Sunday’s final.
In the 110m hurdles, Antonio Alkana was fifth in 13.40, with Jamaican Commonwealth Games champion Ronald Levy winning in 13.13.