Khotso: I did the best I could with my career

RIO DE JANIERO: Khotso Mokoena may have exited his final Olympic Games with a whimper, but his imposing legacy will remain etched forever in South African athletics.

Mokoena missed out on the Rio triple jump final yesterday when his best of three attempts of 16.51m failed to qualify him for a shot at a medal in today’s final.

Mokoena bowed out of the Olympics as the country’s most decorated horizontal jumper.

“I felt good, it’s just unfortunate that I couldn’t pull it through and go through to the final,” Mokoena said.

“I had a long season and am ready to hang up my spikes.

“S***, one can only be happy. Four Olympic Games, I did the best I could with my career.”

The double national record-holder made his Olympic debut 12 years ago in the “hop-skip-and-jump” before winning the country’s only medal at the Beijing 2008 Games, finishing second in the long jump.

Mokoena holds the South African long jump record of 8.50m and the national mark in the triple jump of 17.35m, set in 2014.

Mokoena is credited with inspiring a new generation of long jumpers. One of them is Luvo Manyonga, who leapt to an Olympic silver medal in the early hours of Sunday morning. “I think in some way I did play a part in helping youngsters,” Mokoena said. “Luvo (is the) next one to hit my Africa record, very talented young man.”

Mokoena said he was proud of his achievements in a career spanning more than a decade, the clear highlight being his Beijing 2008 silver medal. “Every athlete’s dream is to have an Olympic medal, so I’ll always treasure that,” Mokoena said.

“Whenever I think of 2008, I just glow, because I actually have achieved what I wanted to as a young boy, which is to win an Olympic medal. “I’m obviously emotional now because I was (just) competing, but deep down I’m very happy.”

Meanwhile in the 400m hurdles, South Africa’s LJ van Zyl qualified 15th fastest for tonight’s semi-finals by running 49.12sec in his heat. Quickest in the first phase of the event was Jamaican Annsert Whyte, with a time of 48.37sec.

The two other South Africans in the event, both finished seventh in their respective heats and did not progress. Lindsay Hanekom clocked 50.22sec in Heat 3, while Le Roux Hamman ran a time of 49.72sec in Heat 4.