Manyonga to target world mark in Alps
New world champion plans to break 8.95m long-jump record at high altitude competition
Newly crowned world champion Luvo Manyonga will have a crack at the 8.95m long-jump world record at a specially arranged jumps meet in the French Alps next week.The competition on Wednesday will be staged at 3,032m above sea level at the bottom of the Grande Motte glacier at Tignes, which offers year-round skiing, using a sand pit."If there’s a chance of Luvo breaking the record, it will be at this meet because of the altitude," coach Neil Cornelius said at a media briefing in London featuring his charge Manyonga and long-jump bronze medallist Ruswahl Samaai. "It’s going to happen eventually," said the coach. "We will get a big jump."The two world marks before Mike Powell’s record from 1991 were set at altitude, both in Mexico City, in 1967 and 1968.US triple-jump star Christian Taylor will also be in action in Tignes.Manyonga and Samaai, both products of Paarl, have already returned to full training as they prepare to see out the rest of their season, but they are also dreaming of ...
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