Visser, Manyonga, Mokoena, Cotter ... Samaai in a rush to leap rivals in a single bound

“IT is going to be a good battle – it will be like a world championship or Olympic Games final. My guns are in my saddle, and my machine is loaded!” With that, Ruswahl Samaai,

laid down a marker to his four – yes, four – major rivals for the national long jump title at the SA Athletics Championships at Coetzenburg in Stellenbosch today.

All of Zarck Visser, Luvo Manyonga, Khotso Mokoena and Dylan Cotter are waiting to grab the title away from Samaai, who won last year’s event at the same venue with a leap of 8.38m.

This year, it is Visser who has set the pace with a worldleading jump of 8.41m, which is just 9cm off Mokoena’s South African record of 8.50m.

Samaai and Manyonga have both recorded 8.20m this year, with Mokoena and Cotter at 8.16m, all inside the Olympic qualifying mark of 8.15m.

But Sascoc are unlikely to send all five athletes to the Rio Games in August. “I don’t think they will send all five of us to Rio – I think the top three this weekend will go. So there’s a possibility that one out of the five will be disappointed, as I don’t think any country can enter four athletes in the event,” Samaai said this week.

“But winning the title is the most important thing to me – I want my title back! Yes, we could all win medals, but the Olympics are still far away.”

It is Visser’s 8.41m that could intimidate the other jumpers, but Samaai – who came fifth in the World Indoor Championships in the USA a few weeks ago – is not overawed by the distance, even though last year’s SA nationals winning effort of 8.38m is his personal best.

He won the Varsity Athletics meet last week at Coetzenburg with his season’s best of 8.20m, and is confident of reaching Visser’s 8.41m when the men’s long jump final gets underway today.

“Definitely, it’s just a question of time. An 8.41 isn’t out of reach – it’s not impossible. But that is not my focus at the moment, as I am concentrating on defending my title. Whatever distance comes, will come. But it will need a big one to win,” Samaai said.

“Last week was good preparation so that we could see where I am and how things are going to be, and also to get used to Stellenbosch and things like that. That is where we decided that we are going to go big this weekend – everything is in place.”

The men’s long jump will kick off an action-packed second day at the SA championships, with the highlight of the day arguably 400m world champion Wayde van Niekerk in the one- lap final, while Caster Semenya will be off in the women’s 800m final.

As is usually the case, the meet will end with a series of relays in the evening, and it will be interesting to see how quickly the Gauteng North team can go in the 4x100m as they boast the two quickest men in the country – 100m record holder Akani Simbine and previous joint- record holder Henricho Bruintjies, as well as rising teen sensations Gift Leotlela and Clarence Munyai.