Manyonga Overcame 'Jitters' to Qualify for the Olympic Long Jump

Manyonga overcame ‘jitters’ to qualify for the Olympic long jump Luvo Manyonga had to overcome a case of ‘jitters’ before he was able to qualify for tomorrow’s Olympic long jump final in Rio. Overstepping with his first attempt, he certainly did not have the best of starts in his Olympic debut. “I could see that Luvo was nervous while he was warming up. I think it was because he so badly wanted to go through to the final, but kept thinking back to the South African Championships where he failed to record a legal jump. As a result he overstepped in his approach to his first attempt. I think he showed a lot of character when he put all his self-doubt aside to jump 8.12 metres with his second attempt. With his third attempt he recorded a distance of 8.10 metres,” said Neil Cornelius who coaches the Tuks/HPC long jumper. “I think these two jumps were the confidence booster Luvo needed. He now knows how it feels to compete at the Olympic Games and realises that if he manages to keep calm he could be in with a chance to medal,” Manyonga’s son, Lindokuhle, will be his main motivation when he competes in the final. “I will not be able to live with myself knowing that I let him down. Athletics for me is a way to ensure that he will never be in need of anything and that he will get a good education,” said the Tuks/HPC athlete. Jianan Wang (China) with 8.24 metres, Jeff Henderson (USA) who jumped a season’s best of 8.20 metres and Emiliano Lasa (Uruguay) with 8.14 metres, are the only jumpers who recorded better distances in the qualifying heats than Manyonga. South Africa’s Rushwal Samaai jumped 8.04 metres to qualify for tomorrow’s final. Quite a few of the athletes who were considered to be medal contenders failed to go through to the final. Mike Hartfield (USA) who, in the build-up to the Games, jumped 8.34 metres could only manage 7.66 metres. Sweden’s Michel Torneus, who had jumped 8.44 metres before Rio, could only manage 7.65 metres in the heats. Maykel Masso (Cuba), who was expected to have no problems, could only jump 7.81 metres. South Africa’s Stefan Brits also failed to qualify. His best jump was 7.71 metres. Britain’s 2012 Olympic champion, Greg Rutherford, so nearly did not get to defend his title. He failed with his first two attempts and only just managed to qualify for the final with his last jump of 7.90 metres. According to Manyonga the Mondo track in Rio is very fast and that was why many of the athletes battled with their timing. “I might not have qualified if it was not for the fact that Mondo track at Tuks is very similar to the Olympic track. I at least knew what to expect,” said Manyonga. South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk had no problems qualifying for the 400 metres semi-final, clocking 45.26s in his heat. Rynhardt van Rensburg ran a season’s best of 1:45.67 to secure his place in the 800 metres semi-final. Carina Horn (Tuks/HPC) finished second in her 100 metre heat in a time of 11.32s, which was good enough to go through to tomorrow’s semi-final. Horn is quietly confident that she is capable of running a much faster time. “Tonight it was all about just making sure about a place in the semi-final. Now the real battle begins.” Alyssa Conley (SA) failed to go through to the next round after clocking 11.57s in the 100 metres. .

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